Not much of note for the week as far as training. The miserable wet weather we have been having in much of the midwest forced me inside to do a couple of my ride and run workouts, but I can’t complain about having that option. Overall, the week went well and I’m starting to build a little speed on the bike again.
Speaking of the bike, for Christmas last year I asked for a flashing light/video camera device for my bike. I had heard several people talking about Cycliq and the Fly6 rear and Fly12 front cameras, so I put them on my wishlist and Santa delivered.
Since I hadn’t really had an opportunity to ride outside with them during winter and most of the early spring, I realized that the time to add them to my bike was ideal now that the weather is trying to get better. First and foremost, they are hi-viz flashers so that you are seen, and they certainly do that job well. But the most recent camera updates to the devices produce a pretty decent video of your ride. I guess the idea is to have proof of the offender should you be driven off the road or driven into, but I don’t really want to think about that.
The issue I had was finding space on my very crowded aerobars to mount the device. I finally was able to attach it so that it wasn’t in the way and I could easily access it. The rear device mounted very easily to my seat post.
Fly12 Front Camera
Fly6 Rear Camera
After working out some bugs with my son’s help and figuring out how to use them I gave them a try. I tried using them both for Saturday’s long 2-hour 45-minute ride but had a couple of issues. First, the Fly12 (front camera) gave me a notice that the battery was low about 1.5 hours into the ride and it didn’t produce any video for some reason. Had to be operator error of some sort. Secondly, the mount bracket came loose and the camera was just bouncing around on my aerobars. Minor issues that I can easily resolve. The rear camera produced some great shots though. Here is an example of the footage it will capture (Note: Turn the volume down):
The wind noise is horrible. I’m trying to figure out if that is just a fact of life with the Fly6/12 or there is some feature that I can turn on to make it record sound better. Interestingly enough it does not pick up the crazy conversations that I carry on with myself, which is a good thing, because they are usually profane laden rants.
So I will be interested in doing a group ride someday and capture some of my teammates riding together. That would be more interesting footage to watch than seeing the truck that runs me over.
The last thing of note is that I am trying to find another company to make team triathlon racing kits for our small group. The trouble is we are somewhat of a small group and most of these custom companies have minimum order numbers that we can’t reach. The company we last used upped their minimums by a few and also declared that the order all has to be of one sex, which stinks because we have added Gunner Jan to our group. I looked into another company that initially looked promising. They had promised to work on our project in April, and when I hadn’t heard from them I started emailing them with no response. I figured the guy was swamped or something, but it turned out that his company got bought out by another company from Mexico. No wonder I wasn’t getting any response from him. So I went back to the internet and found another company called Jakroo, which might be our best choice. They have basically no minimums, will assist with kit design, and you can order in both male or female sizes with no penalty, and I can add cycling jerseys, bike shorts, and other items, not just tri suits. They had a semi-custom design it yourself feature and I played around with it. Here are a couple of designs I came up with:
I ordered a kit that I made and will ride in it a few times to see if the quality meets what we need. I’m starting to get excited about having some new team kits!
Week 9 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 76 miles > Runs: 4 total / 24 miles
Getting close to being done with the base phase of training!
Ironman makes announcements all the time and I usually don’t give them much more than a quick glance. But this was shared on a couple Facebook group pages and it caught my eye:
The reason I didn’t pay much attention to it at first is that it looks like your standard “Register Now” announcement for Ironman, and I’m already signed up for it. But then I read a few comments and realized this was for a relay. Say what? An Ironman relay? NO!!!
Immediately I made up my mind that I hated this idea. A relay for Ironman? C’mon man, this shouldn’t be. Triathletes that do Ironman do them for the challenge of doing three tough events in one day, 17 hours typically. To do just one part doesn’t make any sense to me. The whole purpose of Ironman was to prove an argument as to who was the toughest athlete of three disciplines, the swimmer doing a 2.4-mile swim, the cyclist racing a century or more, or the runner running a marathon. Do all three events in one day and find out! – was the reason behind creating Ironman. (Note: It’s the runner if you are wondering. The strongest swimmer never wins the race. And if you followed Ironman Texas this weekend you witnessed Andrew Starykowicz destroy the bike course only to be caught on the run. And Daniela Ryf made up a significant time gap on the run to win the women’s title. Always bet on the runner. Unless the runner is me, then bet on my buddy Dave. Actually, always bet on Dave, he’s 3-0 in our Ironman racing.) But seriously, what are you proving by just doing one segment of the race? After the swim leg, what do you do while the rest of us are still busting our butts? I better not hear you call yourself an Ironman.
As I read through the many comments I was seeing a lot of similar reactions to this announcement and I was hitting the “like” button for every comment that I agreed with.
“Give me a break. It’s an Ironman! This cheapens it. The last thing I want is some fresh-legged relay athlete zip past me as I’m actually enduring an Ironman. Save the relays for the Olympic distance. I’m not ripping on the athletes, but the Ironman has been the one true test for individuals in triathlons. That’s the beauty of it. The individual challenge mentally and physically.”
“It’s called Ironman, not Ironmen.”
“It’s about that adversity. I’m signing up for the relay as “me” doing the swim, “myself” on the bike, and “I” for the run!”
But as I sorted through those comments others started making valid points.
“Embrace it. It is good for the preservation of the sport or these races go away. Those who do the relay many times will do the full.”
“This opens the door to people who have injuries or are thinking of working up to doing a full one day to experience it. The more people outside doing something, the better! Run your race, meet your goals and let others do the same!”
“Sad that people rip on the relay! I’ve done two full Ironmans and now knee injury. This is a great idea. And for all those who knock it, I hope you always stay injury free and continue being able to do fulls. Not everyone is that lucky!”
So now I am conflicted. I definitely will defend the tradition of the race and what it means to be an Ironman. But if we can get more people involved, I’m all for that too. I don’t really know what to expect when I will be racing Chattanooga in late September. If I see a faster cyclist fly by will I assume he’s doing the relay? When I’m gassed on the run and someone trots by like they haven’t done the previous 2.4-mile swim and the 116-mile bike ride, will that make me angry? I’m not sure. A few commenters mentioned that everyone should do the race their way and not worry about the other group. I guess I will need to focus on myself like I usually do. This is why I would make a horrible judge. If both sides made valid arguments, I wouldn’t be able to make a decision on a winner.
TRAINING FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS
Last week was Easter and we had out of town plans, so I did some creative moving of my workouts and got the job done. And since I was out of town last weekend I didn’t have time to write my weekly wrap-up of training. So here are the details from the last two weeks.
Week 7 was jumbled around a little. I had the opportunity to run with the local running club F’NRC in a group run on Wednesday, which meant I ran twice that day. It was fun running with the group on a nice weeknight. I ended up skipping the long bike ride up north in Minocqua on Saturday, as they still had snow and ice on the bike path up there. Instead, I opted for doing the Sunday run on Saturday as I had a long drive home on Sunday with an additional trip to Valpo to take Ashley back to school.
Week 8 was looking to be a normal follow the plan training week. But the forecast for the weekend weather was terrible. A record-breaking late April snowstorm was predicted for Saturday, so I moved my Saturday 2-hour long bike ride to Friday and made it a bike/run brick, keeping my 1-hour run that was scheduled for Friday. That reminded me how tough brick workouts can be. I was pretty low on energy after that. My Gunner teammate Jeff asked this week as to when we start using gels on our weekend rides. I laughed at him because he’s a two-time Ironman and should know the answer by now, but I now found myself bonking because I didn’t remember that I should probably be adding more energy replacement into my workouts. Jeff’s not the dumb one, it’s me. At least he’s trying to be prepared for it. Although Saturday’s weather was crappy, we didn’t get anything more than a few ice pellets/sleet type stuff. I took Saturday off and had a great 1-hour run on a beautiful Sunday morning. So in all, the week ended well.
Week 7 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 2 total / 29 miles > Runs: 3 total / 22 miles
Week 8 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 65 miles > Runs: 4 total / 23 miles
Getting closer to being done with the base part of the plan.
PART IV – This Is Way Harder Than I Thought It Would Be
Time for another update in my search to add a classic car to my garage that I will probably only drive twice a week! It’s been almost two months since my last update, but it isn’t because I have slowed or stopped my search, it is just taking much longer than I thought it would. First off, winter is a tough time to buy a collector car. You don’t want it outside in the snow, and definitely shouldn’t be driven on salty roads. Buying a car in winter would mean I would have to store it inside, which means that I would have to park my regular driver outside. I don’t want to do that either. Also, it’s easy to get excited about a car you find for sale, but after the experience of looking at that Oldsmobile back in November and almost rushing into a purchase that I might have regretted, I learned to slow my roll, so to speak. Lastly, it seems like the “pickin’s” are kind of slim, especially since I have limited myself to just a few makes and models.
Speaking of that 1967 Olds 442 convertible that I passed on, I found it for sale at a classic car dealership in Ohio, with a new sticker price of about $8000 more than when I almost wrote a check for it.
Here’s the same 442 I drove with Kari back in November, looking shiny in Ohio instead of my garage.
THE DANGERS OF EBAY AND AUTO AUCTIONS
I should just rename this quest as “My Search For a 1967 Plymouth/Dodge B-body Convertible” because that is kind of what it has become. When the search began I was mostly looking for a 1970 Chevelle SS or an Olds 442 from 1967-68. I found that I really like the 1967 cars in general, they are probably my favorite muscle car year. But after looking at the cars from that era, the Plymouth GTX and the Dodge Coronet R/T just get my motor running (pun intended) for some reason. A couple of cars that I mentioned last time are still out there and I like them, but I’m still looking for one that isn’t that far away and would allow me to take a quick drive to go look at it. I have recently found a couple GTX’s that fit that need.
Car #1
First up is this 1967 GTX convertible located about 25 miles from me:
I first found this car by searching on eBay, where the starting bid was around $35,000. Now I like it a lot! So I bid on it, with my max bid at $44,000. I think it is worth more than that, I was just being conservative with my bid. I was the only bidder and I didn’t hit the reserve auction price when it ended. The dealer rep sent me a message through eBay informing me that the car had its original window sticker and build sheet. That’s great and pretty rare to have the window sticker, but I’m not buying it for the window sticker. So I went to their website and looked for more info. There they had the car listed at $59,990. Now I had sticker shock. No wonder I didn’t hit his auction reserve price. Most of the non-Hemi 1967 B-body cars I have looked into have sold for around $50,000 or under on average. He was asking way too much.
It hits all my wants: GTX with a 440, a convertible, and it is local. I should buy it. But it has some cons too, mainly that it is all blue, which is a lot of blue. I bet that dark-colored interior heats up pretty hot in the sun with the top down. The driver side armrest on the door has a crack in it. You would think that a car that is sporting a decent restoration would have had that issue addressed. I also noticed that the tail lights were mismatched. The 1967 Belvedere had two styles of tail lights, one with a chrome strip and one without. This car had one of each version. The dealer also adds that it has “Protect-o-Plate” which is wrong. Protect-o-Plate was GM’s warranty plan, Plymouth had a similar version called “Certicard.” All of this makes me think he hasn’t done his research on this car.
You can see the mismatched tail lights above. The left one doesn’t have the same chrome strip next to the trunk lid that the right one has.
The blue interior with the cracked armrest.
I decided to keep an eye on this car and saw that he listed it again on eBay. I found myself bidding on it again, this time with a max bid of $46,500. I was bidding on it against another bidder, but he was a bigger cheapskate than I was and the auction ended somewhere in the upper $30,000’s with me being the max bidder. Then I noticed that on the dealer website they had dropped the for sale price from $59,990 to $54,990! They came down $5000! I was starting to believe my patience was paying off.
It was listed again on eBay again this past week with the usual $36,000 opening bid. I bid again but pushed my max bid to $48,000 just to see if I was getting close to the reserve price. This time I had some serious competition in the bidding wars. I quickly got outbid until the auction ended with me losing to a max bid of $48,300, which didn’t meet the reserve, and the car didn’t sell. It’s now listed again on eBay with a “Buy It Now” price of $59,990! Did we piss this guy off with our low bidding? Their website still lists it at $54,990. I guess I might have to find some time to actually go up there and talk with them about the car and actually see it and maybe even drive it. Heck, I may find out that I’m not in love with it, just like I did with the 442.
One thing I need to be cognizant of is that whether buying a car through eBay or at an auction like Mecum or Barrett-Jackson is that without seeing it, I’m not sure what I am really getting. That is what is making this quest so difficult. Some of these cars are too far away for me to go see easily, even though I’m drooling at the photos on the auction and dealership sites.
Car #2
I went back to the old Google machine and found a newly listed GTX for sale online located coincidently enough about 10 miles from the one above, so again it’s really close to me and might warrant a trip to go see it. The downside is that it is a hardtop, not a convertible. The positive – 4 SPEED BABY!
An actual outdoor photo of the car superimposed on a dumb display background. Not sure if this color is the same Dark Metallic Blue as the other car. It looks to be a lighter shade blue, but that could just be because the picture was taken outdoors.
Another blue interior that looks to be in great shape, but with 4 on the floor.
I like it, but again my eye is catching things to be leary of. There’s a photo of the engine bay that shows that the radiator at some point in its life had a leak and has a bluish copper oxidation type material on it. Not sure if it is still leaking or not, but that could be a red flag. My coworker and fellow car nut Carl thinks that may be a sign of the engine running hot, and might have a good point. I think it may just be an old car showing its age. The thing is though, my brother was the mechanic in the family, I am “handy enough to be dangerous” with tools. I wish my brother was still alive, this search would be much easier and probably would have been over with by now.
The website does not list a price for this car. Even though it’s not a convertible, I may have to inquire about the price and go take a look see.
Car #3
The surfing the interwebs for cars is something I spend my evenings doing, and I still look at the offering from all of the big three. Although I am not much of a Ford guy, the most recent issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines magazine featured a 1967 Ford Fairlane GTA, which looks pretty cool. I may have to look at those a little closer too.
But this 1968 Buick GS convertible definitely caught my eye. The first impression is that the photos jump off the page. The sky blue color really pops. I must have a thing for blue. Another thing that caught my eye was the price – $34,900! Now we are talking! But the car is in Florida. And closer inspection of the photos show some little things here and there that give me pause, mainly the door and trunk gaps, but cars built in the 1960s weren’t really that high on that type of quality. My inlaws live in Florida, maybe I could get my father-in-law to go take a look at it. I can hear him now: “It’s very nice. It’s blue. It has four wheels.” That would be the assessment I would probably get out of him.
Pretty sweet! 400 cubes. Very sexy curves!
So that wraps it up for this edition. What it is coming down to I guess is that I am going to have to get off my butt and actually interact with these sellers to make a decision one way or another. I need to get on it – summer is coming quick!
I’m on a few Facebook group pages devoted to running, triathlon and some of the races I’ve done, and I have seen people post training and racing results that others will compare themselves to. I have done that in the past as well, but I learned that when you have a large group of athletes, there are going to be some that are really fast and some that are at the other end of the spectrum. I usually warn people, especially beginners to avoid comparing their times to those of others who may have been high school or college athletes, or who are twenty years younger than they are, or just simply more gifted athletically. But this week I kind of fell into that trap as well.
There was a guy who posted on a local cycling page that I was recently added to who claimed that he was going to ride on Saturday and asked if anyone wanted to join him for the two-hour ride. I was tempted to join in until I saw that he intended to ride at 18-20 mph. Really? Is your name Lance? Last week I rode very hard and out of my planned Z2 heart rate zone and could only barely manage 16 mph. Then others were commenting on his post like they would join him if they hadn’t already ridden earlier. I was taken aback by these people and their apparent ability to ride fast. I commented, “You all can go that pace?!” I really had trouble believing that some of these people could average that pace this early in the spring. I’m a 3-time Ironman dang it! Why can’t I do that too? So I got on my bike again and tried to see what I could do on a pretty windy day. My results were pretty much as I expected, 33 miles in 2 hours, averaging right around 16 mph, and way out of my Z2 training zone.
I looked up Mr. 18-20 MPH on Athlinks, a website that basically will show the results of races for anyone who has signed up and raced. Although he didn’t have any cycling results on Athlinks, he did have some running results. Those results were what I expected; a couple two hour half marathons and a nearly 5.5-hour marathon. I now doubted his ability a little more. But I know another guy on that page that struggles with running but can definitely kick butt on the bike. I reminded myself that generally cycling doesn’t make you a better runner, and running doesn’t make you a good cyclist. However, it did make me wonder what I am doing wrong that I can’t do that tempo as well. Then I realized that I fell into that comparison trap where I am comparing myself to someone I really have no idea of how fit he really is on the bike. I need to just worry about myself and progress slowly for 30 weeks to complete my goal. His goal isn’t mine, and I just need to remember that.
I took a road I never use and ended up getting turned around a little. I took a quick moment to document my dumb self.
Best I could do on a windy day.
The weather this week was crazy. Some of the days were very spring-like and yet old man Winter would remind us that he’s not done yet and dump snow on us again. My Sunday run was forced indoors due to a crazy mid-April snow storm. Summer needs to get here fast!
Week 6 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 61.6 miles > Runs: 4 total / 23 miles
One of my favorite running quotes: “Comparing our performances to the performances of other runners is not nearly as constructive as comparing our performances to our own potentials.” – Jack Nelson
When it comes to training sometimes I get too competitive with it. What starts out as a simple training workout, straight from the training plan, it often goes right out the door when I actually start the workout. I’m like a dog out for a simple walk until I see a squirrel, then the chase is on and I’m no longer interested in the simple walk.
Case in point for me this week was my Friday easy run. When I say easy I mean that it was a Zone 2 out of 4 heart rate based run, for 60 minutes. Essentially, this is a run that is done at a conversational pace, meaning that you should be able to easily carry on a conversation while running, rather than a Zone 4 race pace. That’s what the plan called for, but I had other plans. It was a nice day, and I had realized that the marathon that I had already decided to forego was coming up next weekend. I had planned on skipping the race due to a couple of injuries that prevented me from training sufficiently and the fact that I had decided to do Ironman Choo with my buddies instead. But I was curious about how far off my conditioning was, or if I was even capable of holding my 8 minutes per mile marathon race pace. So I headed out the door and started running comfortably hard, essentially Zone 3 on the heart rate scale to see if I was even anywhere near the ability to race a marathon. This is essentially a bad idea and I probably should have known better.
I was feeling pretty good. My continually sore legs weren’t really bothering me, and I felt no soreness in the upper thigh area where I had just recovered from the second of two muscle strains. About 1.75 miles into the run the squirrel appeared in the form of the local high school boys track team running hill repeats on the trail ahead of me.
Now, I’m not shy about challenging myself on this hill. Someone made it a Strava segment, and I currently sit at a tie for 10th place on this segment. My brain can typically shut down my urges, especially when I’m 1.75 miles into an 8-mile run, but this time there was a squirrel, several of them.
They were standing on the other side of the bridge at the bottom of the hill and as I hit the bridge they could hear me coming and turned to look with a surprised (who the hell is this guy?) look on their faces. I had already decided to race them up the hill, but that wasn’t enough. I shouted, “DON’T LET AN OLD GUY BEAT YOU UP THIS HILL!” And with that one kid yelled “NO WAY!” and the race was on.
I guess that there were about a dozen of shirtless boys that I started with. By comparison, I was wearing a long sleeve tech shirt and long sleeve windbreaker over that. Plus I had the disadvantage of being 40 years older than them. I overheard a kid tell the coach at the bottom of the hill that this was his 7th and last hill repeat, so I guess it was kind of an unfair fight, but that equates to about the same distance I had run to get there, and I hadn’t taken it easy either.
I started picking off kids, which I found easier than I thought it would be. A few could hear me coming and kept looking behind to see how close I was getting, but they would get caught. About halfway up the hill, my heart felt like it was about to leap out of my chest. The kids I was slowly passing seemed like it wasn’t even bothering them that much, but their effort said otherwise. As I got to the top of the hill there was another coach there waiting for the group. “I just outran half your team up that hill, coach!” I told him between heavy panting. He smiled and laughed. I continued on to the nearby intersection and was glad to see that I would have to wait for the light to cross the street so I could get a much-needed rest. To my surprise, I was able to continue most of the remainder of the hour-long run around my marathon pace without much difficulty, but I knew that continuing on for a full 26.2 miles would have been a challenge.
Although this run could have easily sabotaged my week, it didn’t, but I never seem to learn from these dumb challenges. My Saturday long bike ride resulted in me pushing myself again. This was my first effort outside after spending my winter bike training on a spin bike indoors. Those indoor rides would make me sweat, but never really tire me out. I was essentially doing high spin rides and conditioning my butt to a saddle more than working my legs hard. But I wanted to prove that they were equal to my outdoor rides, so I tried to ride the same speed outside that I was doing inside. Big mistake. It was a challenge for me to keep my average speed above 16 mph, whereas indoors it was my typical easy ride. That just goes to show that riding indoors, whether it be a bike on a trainer or a spin bike, is not on the same level as being outside dealing with wind and a variety of rolling terrain. It’s still better than not riding at all.
I finish these efforts and often reflect as to how close I was to the actual workout, and often times I am shooting myself in the foot. Even with my constant achy legs and what seems like quickly diminishing ability to go fast at 55, I can’t seem to remember sometimes that the goal is to pace myself throughout the 30 weeks of training so I can adequately pace myself through 140.6 miles, or at Chattanooga 144.6 miles. I gotta stop being my own worst enemy.
No Drake! No steps back!!!
Week 5 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 51.6 miles > Runs: 4 total / 21 miles
I had a wonderful time touring colleges with my wife and our high school daughter Rebecca over spring break. She claims she’s “so ready for college,” but I’m not sure mom and dad are. She’s only a junior for goodness sake. Since Becca has a preference for a college that is located in the eastern or southern part of the US, i.e. far away from home, we headed toward the South to check off a couple that are high on her list. Along the way, we did some great sightseeing too!
First up was Nashville, Tennessee, home to Vanderbilt University. My introduction to Nashville wasn’t too positive, as I couldn’t figure out how to get into the hotel parking lot with the swarming millions of people walking around. Is Nashville this crazy popular?! It was insane. I made a comment that it was almost like Las Vegas, and later on, my sister made a comment on Facebook referring to Nashville as “Nashvegas.” I’m not a fan of crazy crowded and loud places, but as we got settled in I got more comfortable. Here are some photos from our tour of Nashville:
We took a walk on the walking bridge over the Cumberland River.
Panoramic photo of our hotel in Nashville. The Nashville Predators play hockey in the building on the left.
The Country Music Hall of Fame was a block from our hotel, so we went there and they pitched a group package of tours, including the hall, as well as Studio B where Elvis and many greats recorded their hits and a historic letterpress print shop that produced many of the great concert posters from the early country music days in Nashville. I was amazed at how much I knew about country music, even though I don’t like it much. After seeing some of the sights and listening to some of the live music going on, I realized maybe I don’t hate it as much as I thought.
Standing next to the piano that many of the great country stars used on their recordings in Studio B. The studio is pretty much the same as it was in the 1950’s when Elvis was recording there.
We took a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, home to the Grand Ole Opry back in the early days of Country Music. The whole time there I was thinking about my father who loved this stuff.
Next up on the agenda was our first college visit, Vanderbilt University. We learned a little about the Commodore and the history of the school. Beautiful campus. This school is high on Becca’s list.
I had a desire to go to the American Pickers shop, Antique Archeology to see some cool stuff. My favorite was this Evel Knievel jacket that Evel had worn. Ol’ Evel and I share a birthday, and he was an idol of mine as a kid. No Mike or Frankie sightings.
Our trip to Nashville coincided with my sister-in-law Wendy and her family and we all took in a live music show starring some great young women singer-songwriters. They were very talented. I found the girl in the middle to stand out somewhat from the others, but they were all good. They would take turns singing and tell a little about the song and how they came to write it. The girl on the far left added some percussion to each of the songs and did a great job. We were shocked to hear that she was only 14 years old. She was just as professional as the others.
I’m glad I took the time to tour the Johnny Cash exhibit. The one artist that my father really liked was The Man in Black. He had one 8-track tape, Live at San Quentin, and played it in the car over and over again. That 8-track was on display at the museum. I know his copy has to be around somewhere, I took it to college and my roommate Dave and I listened to it occasionally.
Not far from Nashville was a place called the Hermitage, home to President Andrew Jackson. I was surprised at how much I didn’t know about Jackson, for instance, he detested the US Bank at the time and ironically his picture appears on our $20, which he probably would be ticked off about. He’s buried at the Hermitage in the garden, next to his wife with his stone labeled as General Andrew Jackson. He apparently was more proud of his army legacy than his presidency.
After an awesome stay in Nashville, we got in the car and headed to Columbia, South Carolina. We broke the trip up with an overnight stay in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and did some hiking and some sightseeing of this very touristy area.
Pancakes are Becca’s favorite, and these set a new standard! This was a place called Crockett’s in Gatlinburg.
After loading up on pancakes, we went for a hike on some nearby hiking trails in the Great Smoky Mountains. Lots of beautiful things to see on this hike, especially this waterfall.
After the hike, we drove the rest of the way to Columbia to tour the campus of U of SC. I was expecting the campus to be a boring tour of buildings, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a very nice campus situated in downtown Columbia, next to the Statehouse.
South Carolina Statehouse. I like how the flowers pop in this picture and the flags poke out at the top. The exterior walls bear some stars that indicate where General Sherman’s artillery shells had hit the statehouse during the Civil War.
Becca and Cocky. She liked U of SC.
After spending a night in Lexington, Kentucky, we pushed toward home and stopped in West Lafayette, Indiana to see Purdue University. Big school and quite different than the previous two schools we just toured.
So glad we had the opportunity to take some time to see some really cool things and expose Becca to some college campuses. This was a fun vacation.
I am a little behind in the weekly logging of my Ironman training due to leaving for spring break and not having access to a computer, as well as not having any desire to post about it as I was trying to enjoy my vacation. So I will wrap up the past two weeks with one post.
Week 3 was going just fine until I strained another high leg/groin muscle, this time in my left leg. This left me very sore and unable to run. The same injury happened a few weeks ago in my right leg, which left me unable to get in the mileage I was hoping to do while training for a spring marathon. Due to that lack of training due to injury, and the fact that I had signed up for this Ironman, I decided to pull the plug on attempting to run another marathon and try for another Boston Marathon qualifier. I ran Boston for the first time in 2018 and it was really all I needed to accomplish with it. I found the journey of getting there to be more rewarding than actually running Boston. By the time Boston rolled around I was overtrained, tired of killing myself, and thanks to one of the worst weather days in the history of the race, it wasn’t much fun. The emotions of finishing my first Boston Marathon were special, especially on that day, but I will cherish the effort it took to get there more than the race itself, as I ran it much like a victory lap that I couldn’t really enjoy due to the weather. Enough about Boston. I pulled the plug on the upcoming marathon because there was no way I would be ready, and I didn’t want anything messing up my Ironman training. Boston will have to wait until a time in the future when I really want to do it again. I will get to enjoy watching my son and his girlfriend run Boston for their first time instead of running it with them. Actually, running it “with” them isn’t even a possibility, as they are much faster than I am.
So in Week 3, I was only able to get in one 5-mile run. Biking wasn’t affected and I was able to get in what I needed to. I rode the Saturday 1 hour 45-minute ride on Friday instead because I was leaving on vacation Saturday. One thing I was able to accomplish with my bum leg was to work on a small portion of my running path that is plagued with potholes. I took a shovel and filled them in and was proud of my work.
Week 4 was a week for touring the Confederate South, as my wife and I took our daughter on a college visit tour of two southern colleges, Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, and the University of South Carolina in Columbia. On the trip back home, we also stopped in West Lafayette, Indiana for a look at Purdue University. There was a lot of walking involved in these tours, a lot of sitting in cars, and not a lot of great opportunities to workout. I did squeeze in a spin bike workout in the hotel gym with a short two-mile brick added to it on Tuesday and decided not to worry about missing anything else.
We did a 4.5-mile hike in Gatlinburg, Tennessee through some relatively tough terrain. Lots of uphill walking, stones, and climbing. It was a good alternative workout. I’ll take it.
Becca and I hiking in Tennessee
We walked a ton during the tour of Purdue. It was a big campus and the tour guides walked us everywhere.
Upon getting back home on Friday, I was able to do the planned 90-minute bike workout but chose to do it on the spin bike at the gym instead of outside. After having some decent weather on our trip, I was a little disappointed to find Illinois was rainy and colder. Sunday’s 60-minute run went well on a windy but sunny 30-degree day.
So I think I will benefit a little from taking a little break to get back on track. I had originally planned to follow the “Just Finish” plan but I have given in to peer pressure a little from my training buddies who are all following the competitive plan. I will make sure to stay in the planned zones and not overdo it.
On to Week 5!
Week 3 & 4 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 5 total / 87.75 miles > Runs: 3 total / 14 miles
I ended this week with the typical Sunday run and was not in a good place mentally. I woke up on this fine St. Patrick’s Day to find about an inch of freshly fallen snow and I immediately slumped my shoulders and trudged downstairs. Will this winter never end? Come on, already! I also had strained my upper left leg groin muscle on Friday’s easy run. I can’t even go easy and not injure something anymore. It seems my attitude lately has been pretty low.
My fellow Gunner teammates are feeling somewhat off as well. In our group text chats this week we complained about the change to Daylight Savings Time and how that has screwed us up; our necks (Alex) and butts (me) hurting on the bike training; Alex declaring “I HATE THIS SPORT” after a windy, cold, and wet ride that was mentally draining for him; and to wondering why this sport costs so much.
By the time I got around to doing the run, the sun had pretty much melted what snow had fallen, leaving the paved trail void of any slippery spots. As I made it around the block I questioned if I had dressed warmly enough and continued on into the nature preserve where it wasn’t long until I encountered two dogs being walked off-leash and in the preserve where they weren’t allowed. They didn’t bother me physically, but mentally I wondered why can’t people follow the rules. As I began climbing the hills on this run I paid close attention to that strained groin and hoped that I would not strain it more. I backed off when I felt like it might be getting bothered and promised myself to take it easy today. Heading back home in the last mile of the 6 total miles I ran I almost got hit by a lady who must believe that stop signs are optional, and that yielding the right of way to a pedestrian who was actually crossing the street at the time was not in her ability. When she finally looked left and saw me she gave me the most puzzled look, like what the f*ck was I doing there in the street. The look changed from surprise to screw you, buddy, when she realized that I wasn’t happy with her ability to follow the Rules of the Road and not kill people. It wasn’t more than 1/4 mile later when I made it to the big intersection and pressed the WALK button and waited my turn. That’s when the next driver decided stop lights were optional when turning right on red and didn’t bother waiting for me.
As a runner, you learn to run defensively and anticipate those kinds of things, but when you deal with them nearly every run it starts to wear on you. When I got home I realized this week should have been a fun and easy one. Week 2 out of 30 should be fun, but it seemed it had other ideas for me and my training partners. But when I pushed the code to open the garage door I realized that I had made it home safely, I had gotten my run in even though I had strained my muscle, and I had completed the bikes and runs for the week, preparing the foundation of another Ironman attempt. The sun was out, the snow was gone, and in reality, things are looking pretty good. I have to remember that a positive attitude can go a long way in making 30 weeks of training be pleasurable. That is on me.
~
I took my bike in for a tune-up to make sure that it’s ready for riding when the weather gets better. I’m glad I did. Turns out the bottom bracket needed work, and one of my derailleur pulleys was cracked, so both got replaced.
It looks like the bike is in good running shape again and ready for the season. I can’t wait to get off the stationary bike and head outside.
Week 2 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 3 total / 50 miles > Runs: 4 total / 17 miles
A couple of months ago, Dave’s awesome wife and our usual Ironman travel coordinator Carla texted us Ironman friends and informed us that she had secured hotels for our next Ironman. Say that again? You did what?! When did we decide we are doing an Ironman?! Usually, when I get that nauseated feeling of signing up for an Ironman it is self-inflicted. This time Carla was causing it! After some not-so-deep introspection as to whether I wanted to add this to my racing calendar (I already had a spring and fall marathon and some shorter tri’s on it) most of our group decided to rev up our Gunner mobiles and give it another go. Honestly, training was not going well for my spring marathon Boston qualifying attempt, and this was a good enough reason to get out of that. As for that Chicago Marathon that is two weeks after this Ironman race, I will see how I feel. I may defer the race until the following year if I remember to do it in time, or I might just take it easy for two weeks post-Ironman and run Chicago as a victory lap. I was planning on it being my last one for a while anyway. So with that reasoning, I decided that I was in.
Training has now started for my fourth Ironman and again I am joined by my Gunner teammates, or some of them anyway. It appears that Alex and I are the only ones officially signed up, and my life long buddy Dave (Alex’s dad) was the one who initiated the idea about doing the race so I am sure he’s probably signed up. Jeff says he’s only in if John is in, but Jeff has started training for it too. John skipped Louisville and has his hands full with a very young family, so I’m guessing he may miss this one as well, but I never count him out. I’m trying to pitch the easy training plan to him, which requires less training time. There’s also talk of Jeff’s sister Jan joining us, and Dave is heavily recruiting his brother-in-law Scott to join in the fun. That’s awesome, the more the merrier. Also, there is a group of first-timers from the local running club that are also training for the race as well. I’m looking forward to seeing Susan and John B. training and completing their first Ironman, and I hope we can find some time to do some training rides together. So there are quite a few joining in the fun this time around.
IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA
Ironman Chattanooga is sponsored by Little Debbie! I love Nutty Bars! Wait, is it Choo or Chew?
Our adventure is taking us to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, to Ironman Chattanooga, also known by triathletes as “Choo” as in The Chattanooga Choo-choo, and sometimes “Chatty,” and has a reputation for having a fast downstream swim, a mostly gentle rolling hill bike ride through northern Georgia and back to Chattanooga, and a run with a few killer hills. The most notable item about Choo is that the bike ride is 116 miles, four more miles than all of the other Ironman races, making this Ironman 144.6 total miles. The veterans will say that you don’t really notice the extra four miles of cycling and that the fast swim evens out the time. All Ironman races have unique things about them, but none of the others have an extra four miles. I’m looking forward to adding this race to my finisher resume.
Here’s a look at the bike and run elevation comparisons from the three races I have done (in order of completion) and Choo:
The data was taken from the Ironman website, but there are lots of triathletes that say that Ironman’s reported elevations are not very accurate. I seriously doubt that Moo has less elevation than Lou. Regardless, the chart is pretty consistent with how I remember them. Choo looks like an easy run compared to Moo and Lake Placid.
TRAINING PLAN FOR CHATTANOOGA
I’m changing up my training plan this time around. I will once again be using Don Fink’s Be Iron Fit for training, but after following the Competitive plan in the book for my previous three races I am giving serious consideration to following the Just Finish plan with some alterations. The main reason is that I am pretty sore all the time, and I just want to ease into the training this time around without killing myself. The Intermediate plan seems to me does not differ much from the Competitive plan to make it worth dropping down to. Getting the Saturday and Sunday long bikes and long runs in are what really matter, and the Just Finish plan starts off with much less time training but gradually catches up to the Competitive plan. The big difference is that the Just Finish maxes out at two 5-hour rides, whereas the Competitive plan has two 5-hour rides, a 5:30 ride, a 5:45 ride and finishes with a 6-hour ride. Not sure if I can handle that stuff this time around. We’ll see how the training goes and I may increase my weekend rides and runs to follow the Competitive plan. If the group decides to do a group ride and they are following the harder plan, then I will definitely go along with that.
As I eased into Week 1 training, I found that the Just Finish plan was less work than I had been averaging in my off-season training, so I decided to start with the Competitive plan and keep my daily efforts to about an hour of daily exercise until I’m happy using the Competitive plan, or when the Just Finish plan catches up to me.
As for swimming, I gained a lot of confidence from the training I did in 2017 for Ironman Louisville. Lou has a similar river swim as Chattanooga and I set a swim personal best there with a 1:09 swim. Lou has a short upstream swim portion which Choo lacks. At Choo, it’s all downstream, and I hear that even though the water temps may prevent wetsuit usage, many still set swim personal bests. For Lou, I basically waited until May when I opened my own swimming pool and just did two 45 minute swims a week, with the occasional hour-long swim or open water swim thrown in to keep me honest and make sure that I had the confidence I needed to swim 2.4 miles. Swimming for 45 minutes is really no big deal, and to swim an additional 45 minutes I always thought would be no big deal as well.
So here we go again! And I’m very excited about training for Ironman Chattanooga! GO GUNNERS!
Week 1 Training Totals:
Swims: None > Rides: 4 total / 57 miles > Runs: 4 total / 12.25 miles
Hey everyone! It has been a while since I thrilled you with my search for a classic car, so let’s return to another edition! (If you need to get up to speed, you can read my previous posts at the links at the bottom.)
PART III – Why I Suck At Buying A Muscle Car
This was supposed to be fun. This could have been simple. Find a car you like. Contact the seller. Pay some money. Get a car. Nope.
Back in November of last year I got excited about a 1967 Olds 442 that I wrote about in Part I, and I rushed up to the northern Chicago suburbs to take a look at the car, test drove it, almost reached into my back pocket for the checkbook, and then hit the brakes. I just had a bad feeling. I felt like I was rushing into it too fast, and that I was buying on adrenaline fueled impulse. The adult in me told me to take a pass and make sure I knew what I was doing. I kind of regret that. That car was pretty good, it was priced well, and the wife and I would have looked great in it cruising around town on the weekends. That car is gone, and I needed to move on.
And move on I did, onto a 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX convertible located in sunny Los Angeles, California.
’67 GTX in Turbine Bronze Metallic!
This car looked great in the pictures online and I was hooked – hooked in the same way I was with the 442. I think part of my problem is that these cars are pretty rare. You could argue that the market for old muscle cars is plentiful, and there are plenty, but there just are not that many 1967 Plymouth GTX convertibles in turbine bronze metallic paint with white on black interiors. Trust me on that one. It’s not like you can go down to the local Plymouth dealership and place an order for one like they did in 1967. (Plymouth doesn’t even exist anymore, so there’s that too.) So when a cool optioned car becomes available, you kind of need to act on it if you want it. But with the 442 lesson learned I decided to wait. In late December we were going to be in Pasadena for the Tournament of Roses Parade with my daughter’s marching band. I had the great idea that since we would be in SoCal for the parade, I would take a ride to Chatsworth, CA and take a look at the car. But the trip was already pretty heavily planned out, and I had to take a pass on seeing the GTX.
I wrote in Part II of my search that I had done a little more digging into the history of the GTX and found out some things about the car that gave me a little pause, mainly it’s history of being auctioned three times, and that it had been in Virginia and Florida when the dealership was advising that it was an Arizona/New Mexico car. But that didn’t really deter me, so I kept a close eye on it.
I was kind of sitting in the midwest in the middle of the typical winter polar vortex, and I came to the conclusion that trying to buy a car and have it shipped here in this weather was a bad idea. But a few weeks passed and we moved into February and eventually I decided that I liked the idea of owning that car enough that I should either book another flight to California to see it myself, or have someone go look at it for me. Guess what, there are people who are experts at classic cars (i.e. the opposite of me) that you can pay to inspect it for you! I finally contacted one that I thought was trustworthy and was told that for my $400 I would get a detailed inspection of the car with an awesome report and tons of pictures. All I wanted him to do really was to drive the thing and give me a thumbs up or thumbs down, but what he was offering to do was cool too. So I contacted the dealer and told him I was going to send this guy over to look at the GTX and got the following email reply:
Hi Chris,
Thanks for reaching out.
The 67 has sold.
I have a 68 Hemi Coupe and a few other cars that I will be happy to have inspected.
All the best.
Bummer dude. That’s a real drag, man. He had the gall to suggest I buy a 68 Hemi Coupe. A Hemi. A HEMI WITH AN $80,000 PRICE TAG. Sir, you mistake me for a Rockefeller. And if I am heading into the year 1968, I’m buying a Road Runner, not a GTX. They are basically the same, but the Road Runner is much cooler. (I may regret that statement. Okay, I already do.)
Okay, the car is gone. Actually the second of two cars that had me drooling are gone! What the heck? I suck at this! Turns out being patient and making sure I was making the right purchase was dumb too! Buy on impulse = bad idea. Wait and make sure it’s the right one = also bad. I am really bad at this!
But I am learning, and I will keep looking. Here are some cars that are on my current wish list, that I am sure I will not be owning any time soon:
A 1968 Olds 442 convertible in green that looks pretty good, but is located in Maine and the dealer says the A/C isn’t working. On my gotta have it scale it is a 6/10.
Next up is a 1970 Olds 442, which is priced way below market value for some reason. Could it be the Chevy emblem on the crankcase breather element? The dash that has no vent holes? Hmmm… Positives are it looks pretty decent, is located about 1.5 hours from me, it’s a 4-speed, and it’s painted gold with a black interior. Looks nice. Cons are it may not be original, and it looks like it sports a kinda okay restoration. It’s a 5/10 on the scale for me.
Here’s another GTX that’s within a couple hour drive for me. I really like this one. It’s much cheaper than the one I lost out on, but it isn’t pristine. Looks pretty good though. It has an aftermarket A/C that I am not sure I’m down with as the original Plymouth climate control levers were replaced with different knobs from the aftermarket unit. I’d give this car a 7/10.
Next up is a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T. The Dodge Coronet and the Plymouth Belvedere were practically the same car. They even rolled off the assembly line in St. Louis together. This thing has got me excited like the California GTX did. Apparently it was owned by a Vietnam vet who traded in a 60’s Corvette for this when he came back home. I looked into the guy and it turns out he passed away. In his obituary, a buddy of his recalls a proud time when they rode in the Coronet on a trip somewhere. I dig that history. The car is in Ohio, which isn’t that far and may be worth a weekend trip for me. It does have a small visible paint chip on the front right fender, but the rest of the car is clean. 9/10 on the want it now scale!
Guess what I found? Another 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T convertible! This one in Deep Blue Metallic paint. The big highlight for this car is that it’s a 4-speed. The downside is that it’s mid-80’s restoration is showing a little wear, and it’s in Minnesota. But it’s still a big like from me. I’d give it 9/10 for sure.
There are a few others I am following, but I won’t bore you with those for now. I’ll save them for the next blog when I write about missing out on the cars above. For now, I will keep kicking those internet tires and keep my hopes up for finding one that has my name on it.
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an amazing run 