Flatirons

foothills
dark shadow in the frozen mist
reborn in frost
swaddled in snow
stark black on white
haunting the horizon
fading into winter's sky

AIA Convention 2009 Videos

The AIA webcast and recorded 14 sessions which can be viewed online for AIA CEU's and which are also eligible for IDP credit.

http://live.blueskybroadcast.com/bsb/client/CL_DEFAULT.asp?Client=189914

The 14 sessions are good for 16.5 AIA Learning Units which almost covers the annual requirement. It's also good for just over 4 IDP units.

A few notes:

First, a warning! In BSF101 - The lecturer presents some interesting perspectives and information. However, Greenpeace refutes his claim as a Co-Founder (rather he was a founding member). He's also a paid consultant/advocate for the forestry, nuclear and PVC industries, among others. While his criticism of LEED being influenced by industry groups, his failure to disclose his own industry ties is incredibly hypocritical. Some of the complaints and points he makes are just plain ridiculous as well and he glosses over a LOT of the drawbacks to the technologies he espouses.

The sessions on dealing with the downturn can be kind of boring, but there's a lot of really great information in them.

The quiz for the ADA session gets FAR more specific with its questions than the other session quizzes do. It's not too hard, but it is significantly different from the more general quizzes for the other sessions.

Some general advice

First of all, the job hunt comes first. Your job is to find a job. I know it's cliche, but it's cliche because it's true. I'm not going to cover the job hunt stuff much, but with all the IDP, NCARB and ARE stuff, as we work our way through it, it's vital to remember that the job hunt comes first, no matter what.

- Get out of the house. I can't emphasize that enough. Treat your day as if you were going to work. Shave, shower, wear clothes you wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen in and go out and do your work someplace other than home. Coffee shops and book stores are great, libraries are even better (nobody giving you a dirty look for nursing your $6 cup of coffee for 7 hours).

- Get organized and set a schedule. Have a plan for each day and stick to that plan just as you would to a planned workday. Don't get into a rut though, always look for new stuff.

- Diversify. If you spend 10 hours a day every day of the week job hunting you'll drive yourself nuts. The job hunt is priority #1, but don't burn yourself out on it or you'll end up miserable and pessimistic about ever finding a job.

- Examine your weaknesses and use this time to improve on them. I recently spoke with my old project manager and asked him for a post-employment performance review. I told him what areas I was already working on and asked for additional advice. His feedback was very positive and gave me a few ideas of things to work on.

- Set goals. Yes, Goal #1 is Get A Job!... but set other goals with firm deadlines and measures. i.e. Get LEED certified by November, take the ARE Site Planning exam on 11/3, etc. Meeting those goals will leave you with a sense of progress and acomplishment even if you don't manage to find a job in that period.

I have a schedule laid out for my week and a routine I follow. I have a list of sites and resources I go through each day for my job hunt. Once I've finished that, which usually take about 2-4 hours, depending on how many jobs are posted and which sites post them, I work on the couple independent design projects I have for a couple hours, then I move on to IDP programs, Revit training/exploration (which also works into the independent projects) and some smaller projects, such as this blog. If my day rolls along well, I may be going from 9 am to 7 or 8 pm or even later if I'm really caught up in what I'm doing. I never spend less than 8 hours in a day "working". Barring some sort of major disruption of course.

Next Steps

I've found myself thinking a lot about what my next step (or series of steps) is going to be as far as my athletic endeavors and I've come up with a few answers, some more solid than others.

First of all, I'm going to shift my focus to running for a while. I'm not abandoning triathlon (as will be clear later) but more than anything else, I am a runner. It's where I find the greatest joy, the greatest release. It's what gives me the highest of highs and where I most find out who I am. Plus I want to chop a chunk of time off that 5+ hour marathon I did at the IDT!
To that end, I'm setting the P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon (Heck of a long name, eh?) as my next major race. The race is January 17th in Tempe, Arizona and should provide a great training goal fr the coming months.

Secondly, I'm tentatively setting the 2010 Great Floridian Triathlon as my second major goal race for 2010. The Great Floridian is an iron distance event in Clermont, FL held every October/November. It was also the leading contender for my first ironman race before the Plymouth IDT was introduced.
I'm setting this as a tentative goal because it's been a very unpredictable year and there are a lot of things in my life that are up in the air right now and I want to keep that in mind as I set these goals. if things don't go as I hope, then I may push off my next ironman until 2011 and just focus on getting faster this coming year. For now though, it's on!

Unemployed and dealing with IDP and the ARE

Not being able to find a job after graduating, or worse, being laid off, is an extremely difficult time in the life of a young professional. There is a huge financial burden, an even heavier emotional burden and the frustration of seeing your career stagnate. It's going to be a tough time no matter what, but there are ways to improve it so the time doesn't feel like a complete loss. Throughout this blog I'm going to cover three basic areas to address to make your time while unemployed as bearable as possible. Moving towards licensure, improving your marketability and staying sane. Today, I'm going to cover some methods of dealing with the first issue, filling the IDP requirements and getting your license. If you're reading this and have any tips or resources to add, please post and share them so we all can benefit.

For years, the system was set up so that we had to finish our IDP time before we could take the ARE exams. This is no longer true. If you have a B.Arch or M.Arch from an NAAB accredited school you can start taking the ARE once you have established an NCARB council record in most states. According to NCARB's website Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Washington DC all allow concurrent ARE and IDP. that's 28 states out of 50, plus Puerto Rico and DC. You should check with the state board of licensing to confirm.

Now, the ARE exams are certainly expensive, but if you can get them taken care of during your period of unemployment, you'll be much better positioned to get a job.

Getting through the IDP program while unemployed is far more complicated though. The road to a professional architect's license is a long one as it is without adding in a long period of inactivity due to unemployment. As full time employees, we rack up IDP units towards the magic number of 700. When I was laid off, I was just over halfway to the goal, with 376 IDP units to my name. As we all know, one unit is equal to eight hours of work experience, so I still have 324 workdays worth of time to put in, which breaks down to about 65 weeks. How do you get those hours taken care of, or at least put a dent in them, when you don't have a job?

The good news is, there are ways of getting IDP units now (although there weren't prior to this year). The May 2009 edition of IDP E-News posted a list of approaches.

Currently Unemployed?

You can earn IDP training units if you are currently unemployed.

Community Service
Work Setting FF (Performing professional or community service when it isn't applicable to any other work setting)
Training Category D – Professional and Community Service
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 10
The program director of the activity can sign off on your training units.

Post-Professional Degree (Master or Doctorate of Architecture)
Training Category D – Related Activities
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 117
Click here for list of approved programs.

As of 1 July 2009, interns will be able to earn training units while unemployed for:

AIA Continuing Education
Training Categories A-D
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 235 (.25 training units equal one learning unit.)
A copy of the AIA transcript must be submitted to NCARB to receive credit.

CSI Construction Documents Technologist (CDT) Certification
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 5
A copy of your certificate must be submitted to NCARB to receive credit.

CSI Construction Specifier (CCS) Certification
Training Category A - Specifications and Materials Research
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 5
A copy of your certificate must be submitted to NCARB to receive credit.
(Note: this cannot be combined with EPC activities for satisfaction of minimum training units in this area.)

CSI Construction Contract Administrator (CCCA) Certification
Training Category B - Construction Phase—Office
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 5
A copy of your certificate must be submitted to NCARB to receive credit.
(Note: this cannot be combined with EPC activities for satisfaction of minimum training units in this area.)

LEED Accreditation
Training Category D - Related Activities
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 5
A copy of your certificate must be submitted to NCARB to receive credit.
(Note: to earn supplementary education training units for LEED Accreditation between 1 July 2008 and 1 July 2009, interns must have been employed in an IDP work setting.)

NCARB Professional Conduct Monograph and Quiz
Training Category C - Office Management
Maximum Training Units Allowed: 2
NCARB will enter your passing score into your Record.
(Note: this can be combined with three EPC activities for satisfaction of minimum training units in this area.)

The volunteer hours existed before, but only got you 10 units or so. Meanwhile the graduate work is a VERY expensive method to get IDP units. After those two though, are some great free or reasonably affordable approaches. While LEED and CSI certifications are pricey, you not only get IDP units but they look great on your resume. The NCARB Professional Conduct monograph and quiz are available on NCARB's website and are 100% free. The AIA Continuing Ed credits are a goldmine too. While you have to dig for them, there are free seminars out there that you can attend in person and online.

More good news! As of January 1, 2010, interns will be able to do activities in the Emerging Professionals Companion with sign-off from their Mentor, rather than their Supervisor. In other words, you should be able to get credit while unemployed for up to 5 units per section.

I'll post more resource as they come to my attention. If anyone has anything to add, let me know!

As the Architect Interns - A Change

I started this blog to follow my path through the internship process as I worked towards becoming an architect. That kind of fell by the wayside as I got caught up in other stuff, but the process continued until I hit a major speedbump.

Layoffs.

The economy took a major downswing and I, along with many of my co-workers and fellow recent graduates, found myself out of work.

A layoff is a huge obstacle in the development of an architect, even if you don't consider the financial impact. I'm going too use this forum as a way to share methods, resources and ideas for getting through the layoff period without losing your mind and keeping your career moving forward.

My First Ironman AKA The Longest Day - Part 4

Post-Race

As usual after such a race, I found I had no appetite but my parents forced a bagel on me anyways. I laughed as I randomly realized I'd probably eaten 6-10 bananas over the last 5+ hours of my Ironman...

My final race time was 14:12:55

We stuck around the finish area for a while, my mother fussing over me... my father beaming and telling me how proud he was of me... and Nicole, omnipresent Nicole, congratulating me over and over again. It was then that I learned how supportive my family had been not just of me, but of all the athletes to race that day.

Another finisher, one I didn't recognize, came over and congratulated me and then turned to thank my folks for their support and said how lucky I was to have such a supportive family. My father in particular had been cheering on every athlete to pass that day. My father is generally a fairly quiet guy, but he can make a lot of noise when he wants to.

We packed up my transition area with little fanfare and headed for the car. I thought about sticking around longer to cheer on the other finishers, but it was almost an hour long drive to my parents' house and I knew both they and I were close to wiped out.

To say I slept well that night would be an understatement. I'd had the sense to put some snacks and water by my bedside before falling asleep, but I slept straight through until 8 or 9 in the morning. I felt better than I had the day after my first marathon (what a hell that had been!) and while my muscles ached, by the end of the day I was climbing stairs and moving around without a problem, a good thing since my flight was the next morning!

I've had no aches or pains since race day, no lingering pain. I was very busy the first week afterwards, showing my best friend Nils around Denver and Boulder (both on foot) and going for short hikes. I started running again a week after the race and have been cycling around a lot as well. No training rides, just commuting so far. I lost two or three pounds on race day but got it back pretty quick. I feel great.

When people ask me about my race, one of the first things they invariably ask afterwards is if I'll do another one. When I did my first marathon, I didn't think about doing another one for months afterwards. When I told my friends and family that I didn't know if I would ever do another, they all seemed to just nod their heads with a knowing smile.

Less than a week later I knew why. They knew what a sick, twisted individual I am. I had done an ironman, one of the toughest endurance challenges on the planet... and I had loved every minute of it. I am an Ironman... not by accomplishment, but simply by nature. I don't know when I'll do another one, but it's certainly a question of 'when', not 'if'.

To wrap up, I want to make a point of thanking a few people. Well, a lot of people actually.

First of all, my family, for being there when I needed you most. It meant so much to me to have you there, whether you came from just down the street or from all the way up in Maine. I love you all.

Secondly, my coach, Mark Van Akkeren. Mark knew when to push me, when to back things off and approached the whole process with an infinitely positive attitude and while I might have been able to do it without his coaching, I would not have done it as well and I certainly wouldn't have felt as good at the end.

Thank you to my friends... Priya, Nicole, Nils, Nora, Joe, Hannah, Paula and all the rest for joining me on rides, for lending support, for caring, for not laughing too loudly when you first saw me in a triathlon suit or when I spent late winter evenings riding on my bike trainer in my room.

Thank you to the Boulder Triathlon Club for creating an amazing community where I learned so much and found such great inspiration.

A final thank you to my parents for believing in me for so long, for tolerating my snappishness in the runup to raceday and for inspiring me in turn by quitting smoking. Having you running alongside me that night meant more to me than I will ever be able to express.

My First Ironman AKA The Longest Day - Part 3

Transition 2 - Bike to Run

I rolled into transition to find my parents waiting for me. My setup was right next to the fence so they talked with me while I changed. My knee was still bothering me and I told them I was worried I wouldn't be able to run. I had brought two pairs of shoes with me, the Nike Frees which I had been training in for the last 2 months, and the pair of Brooks I had been using before them. The Brooks still had some miles on them so I had brought them as a just in case. Since they offered better support than the Nike Frees I opted to switch over to the Brooks (and was glad I had been paranoid enough to bring them).

I was taking my time in transition, which was unusual for me. I made sure I got down some nutrition, vented my fears to my parents about my knee and took some time to stretch out my legs. I grabbed my small tube of sunscreen and headed towards the run exit just as Nicole was coming in.

Time: 6:42

Run 26.2 miles

The run course is along the historic Plymouth waterfront. It starts with a short out and back to the south, then passes the Finish/Transition area after about a mile before proceeding north along the main street, a portion of a Rails-to-trails conversion and a turnaround loop in Cordage Park, then returns along the same route to the Finish/Transition area. The run was four loops of 6.55 miles each.

I was prepared by now for a very painful run. To my complete shock and amazement, there was no pain whatsoever. I almost jumped for joy as I started to run,I tried to get the pain to appear (better to know what would activate it no and avoid it if possible) but nothing came. My knee felt great! I could Run!

During the course of each loop, we passed aid stations 8 times, more than once a mile on average. Each aid station had gels, bananas, Endurolytes, pretzels/chips and cold drinks... water, Gatorade and flattened cola. I didn't stop at every aid station, but I did stop at most and quickly found exactly what worked for my stomach and for my mental state. Banana, flattened cola and, less often, Endurolytes to keep my salt content up.

The feeling of camaraderie that had developed on the bike extended into the run. Almost every passing racer meant a shared smile, nod, quick hello or word of encouragement if someone seemed to be struggling. I ran alongside one racer who had thrown up three times during the swim! He encouraged me to switch from Gatorade to cola and he was right, it was exactly what I needed.

Soon enough, I was beginning my second loop and I realized I had been going too hard. I adjusted my strategy and began doing a long run-walk pattern where I ran for nine minutes and walked for one. The second lap seemed to pass largely in a blur of footsteps and repetition.

The third loop was where I faltered. Badly. As I had finished the second loop, I simply felt so tired. I wasn't bonking, I've bonked before and this wasn't anything like that. I felt mentally tired, like I wanted a nap and I knew I had to stop running. My legs felt good but my rain was screaming "You need a break!". Maybe this was a different sort of bonk from what I had experienced before, maybe I just wimped out, I don't know. All I do know is that I broke down and started to walk when I finished the second loop, marking the midpoint of the marathon.

My parents were waiting for me again, but this time, with reinforcements. My grandmother, grandfather aunt and cousins had come back out to support me, along with my parents. Since I was walking anyways, there were many hugs handed out and words of encouragement, but I couldn't kick myself into gear again. My mother walked along with me for a ways as I tried to run but found myself somehow unable to do it. I felt really good physically, but just oh-so-tired... Soon, my mother was replaced by Nicole who chattered away while we walked and I tried to find what I needed inside of me to get back to running. We walked together for more than a mile and a half before Nicole turned back towards the Finish area. I walked on for another block or two, with fits and starts of trying to get back into stride.

Finally I stopped, grabbed hold of a sign and started going through my stretching routine. I didn't feel tight or anything, but I thought maybe it would help. A minute's worth of stretching later I looked down the road along the path before me and I felt like I could see two distinct paths leading down that same road. The first was the one I had been walking which would eventually get me where I needed to go. But there also was a second one that meant reaching down and grabbing the energy and strength I knew I still had inside me and bending that energy and strength to my will so that I could run the path I knew I should be on. This was not about my body anymore, my body was going to hurt, this was a certainty, it was far too late to avoid that. This was about my mind.

I took a step forward and found myself running.

I found joy again in the running, in each step bringing me forward towards my ultimate goal. I was more than halfway through the marathon of my first ironman... how could I give in now, even a little bit? How could I not rejoice at what I had done and how little I had left to do?

I walked the aid stations, taking a banana, Endurolytes and cold, flattened Coke at each stop, thanking the volunteers with the sort of joyous idiotic grin I had no business wearing after 12+ hours of racing. I greeted my fellow racers with renewed vigor and words of encouragement and congratulations and before I knew it I was approaching the Finish area again, about to begin my last lap of 6.55 miles. The last 6.55 miles of my life before I became an ironman.

As I began that final lap, my mother ran beside me, remarking at how great I looked, at how much better I seemed to be feeling from when they last had seen me. She was right, I had almost given in to despair and now, every step was a celebration. The sun had set and I was running along in the moonlight of my hometown as I put the finishing touches on my first ironman with my family waiting to embrace me. I was in pain, my knees were hurting (not like on the bike) and I had weariness throughout my body.

As I ran, I twisted an excerpt from a book I had read not long before to fit my own situation...

Pain is the mind-killer.

Pain is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my pain

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the pain has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

The pain in my knees was not gone. It was like a bonfire, it had flames made of heat and light and it burned oh so painfully... yet now it seemed if I didn't look at the bonfire, the heat would not burn me. If I did not think of the pain, then it could not hurt me or even slow me down.

I ran that last lap as a victory lap. I greeted and thanked every volunteer that I saw... congratulated the racers I saw who were about to finish up and braced those who weren't with the warmest words I could muster. One duo still had two more laps to do after this one. I couldn't imagine how long a night awaited them, yet they were in good spirits and cheered me heartily when I passed them again headed towards the finish.

There are two moments that stand out above any other on this day and they stand out for the same reason. The first was having my mother running alongside of me as I started the fourth lap. The second was as I approached the finish line with half a mile to go. My father was waiting alone in the dark and called out "Is that Brendan?"

"It is!" I responded with joy in my voice. He called my mother to let her know I was coming and then began running alongside me. He ran with me almost to the very finish and stopped only because the fencing and barriers stopped him. As meaningful as this would normally be, my parents have been smokers for my entire life. They had stopped two months before my race, for a variety of reasons. Two months before, I doubt either of them would have been able to run with me as they did that day but now... now they could, and they did and it meant more to me than crossing that finish line ever will.

Cross it I did indeed, pulling every erg of energy left in my body to hand and driving across the finish. There was no laurel wreath, prize purse or top three finish in my age group awaiting me on the other side of that finish line, but I raised my arms in true triumph having done what not very long ago, I would only have dreamed I could. I threw my head back and let loose a howl that would have shamed Howard Dean "YEAAAHHHHH!" before falling to my knees and kissing the beautiful pavement.

I stood, beaming, oblivious to the road grit in my mouth and was embraced by my mother and father, so proud and so worried at the same time. I felt good... in fact I felt better than I had felt all day, I felt like I could go out and do another lap if I had to.

But I didn't have to, I was done, I was an ironman... I... AM... IRONMAN!

Goal time 4:30

Actual Time 5:39:55 (First half - 2:29:50; Second half - 3:10:05)

Next... post-race!

My First Ironman AKA The Longest Day - Part 2

Transition 1 - Swim to Bike

As I clambered onto the dock, thrilled to be done with the swim and not be eaten by the great white sharks spotted near Chatham the day before, I thought "I did it. I finished the part I was dreading the most." I'm a runner by nature and I knew I'd be fine on the bike ride as long as I kept my effort level where it was supposed to be, but the swim, frankly, terrified me. Between the distance and the waves and tide and salt water, there wee too many variables that I was unfamiliar with. But it was over now.

A volunteer, or perhaps the race director, I couldn't tell without my glasses, unzipped my wetsuit and congratulated me.

"What's the time?" I wondered, since I had no watch.

"Just a bit after 1:30, good job." he said.

1:30! 90 minutes for the swim! I practically flew in leaps and bounds of joy towards the transition area. It was a bit of a distance from the swim exit to the actual transition area, but I hardly noticed, i jogged along briskly, but easily, flying as if in mercury's sandals. 1:30! with all that nasty chop staling me, I had been terrified I might not make the two hour cutoff. I hadn't imagined I would make it in 90 minutes.

I got to the transition area and it was pretty well emptied out. "Fine with me" I thought "more people for me to pass on the bike!" Only 90 competitors did the Iron Triathlon, with another 50 doing the Iron Aquabike and I was well back in the swimming pack, 76th of 90. The one person I saw in transition was my friend Nicole who looked like she had gotten out of the water perhaps a minute ahead of me.

"Nicole! We did it!"

"Brendan! Hi!" And off she went.

I take a lot of pride in having quick transitions... I got to my bike rack, finished stripping my wetsuit, pulled on my glasses, helmet, bike shoes and tossed my nutrition into my jersey pockets (I wore my bike jersey on the swim) and was out of the transition area right behind Nicole.

Time - 3:37

Bike 112 miles

The bike course starts with a 6 mile ride along mostly quiet roads to the Myles Standish State Forest, then 4 loops of 25 miles within the State Forest, concluding with 6 miles back into town. My family would be waiting for my at College Pond which I would pass 8 times. My mother, father, brother and sister-in-law had all been waiting there since just after dropping me off at 5:30 in the morning. I can't thank them enough for their patience and support, they wouldn't get to see me until around 9 am!

As soon as I was going on the bike, I popped a couple Endurolytes and downed a large peanut butter Cliff bar, I was HUNGRY! I don't usually eat Cliff bars on the bike, but I knew with the appetite I had developed during the swim that it was just what I needed and it really hit the spot.

A couple miles after leaving transition, I caught up with Nicole and we chatted back and forth, What was her time coming out of the water I asked her. "1:31" she replied. with me coming out a little after her and the Aquabike having a 5 minute head start... that meant I had done the swim in under 1:30! I was stoked!

I settled in and tried my best to stick to my assigned power output (70-75% of FTP, which put me at 154-165 watts). Nicole and I went back and forth passing each other a few times, all the while picking off other riders. She often passed me on the uphills as I tried to hold within my power range, then I passed her on the downhills and flats. Steady, steady, steady I kept telling myself...

We reached the loop part of the course and soon came upon the first big turn on the course, where Nicole's mom was volunteering directing traffic. I yelled out a quick "Hi Debbie!" as she cheered us on around the curve.

The whole course was within 10-150' above sea level, but it was almost constant rollers the whole way. Up... down... up... down... and there were root bumps, cracks and frost heaves all over the place. I had a hard time hitting my target power output and maintaining it, but if it was easy, it wouldn't be an ironman.

Not long after seeing Nicole's mother we reached College Pond and my family was out in force to cheer us on. My mother and especially my father were screaming their heads off for us. My brother and sister-in-law, who had driven down from Maine for this were there too, yelling just as loudly. I had never heard my father so excited, except for the first time the Patriots had won the Super Bowl. It was a huge lift for me and, I found out later, for other racers. My family had cheered every competitor as loudly and enthusiastically as they had me and Nicole. There were few spectators along the course and having such a loud group made all the difference. Over the course of the bike ride, my parents were joined by my grandmother and grandfather, my aunt, my cousins, my sister, her fiancee and their adorable daughter. Seeing them all as I went back and forth meant so much to me and gave me, and other racers, something wonderful to look forward to aside from more hills, more trees and more laps.

After passing College Pond, there were more ups and downs until a sharp right hand turn that started the longest climb on the route. This was also where we joined some brand new pavement that had been laid down in July... oh my god it was beautiful... no bumps and shocks... just sweet, smooth pavement...

It was about this time that I realized that I might be pushing things a little too much. Riding with Nicole brings out the competitive side of me and I didn't want to make the mistake of riding too hard and burning myself out. So I set my power target for the low end of the range and backed off from Nicole until she was well out of sight, which only took about 10 minutes, then settled back into a more normal effort.

Before I knew it, I had finished the first loop of the bike course. "That wasn't so bad." I said to myself. I was feeling good and doing great with my nutrition plan. Endurolytes every hour, plenty of Gatorade and Cliff Shot Blocks every 20 minutes or so. I had forgotten to put on sunblock (doh!) but the sun wasn't too intense and I felt good. I'd had to pee, but had taken care of that pretty quickly and easily.

The second loops flew by as well. Nicole had caught up to me again (she had fallen behind when she took a wrong turn and went off course) but when we did the second climb up the long, smooth hill, not only did she not catch me, but she fell further back. This was partly due to her catching up to a friend of hers, but she also hadn't been riding as much and had worried about falling off later in the ride.

By now, I had also started to really recognize and anticipate seeing my fellow racers along the course. With only 150 competitors packed along 25 miles of loops with 3 out and backs on each loop, we all got to see an awful lot of each other going by and I felt like this built a level of unspoken camaraderie, at least for me.

I finished the second loop, marking the halfway point of the bike ride, in 3:16:26. I had been a little low in hitting my wattage target and I hoped to bring them up towards the upper end of my target range for the second half of the race, so I was well on my way to a near 6:30 bike split.

Unfortunately, halfway through lap 3, I realized that wasn't going to happen. Around that time I noticed an unusual ache in my right knee. "What the heck was this?" I wondered. I tried adjusting the angle of my leg relative to the bike frame, pulling it in closer, or pushing it out, but nothing seemed to lessen the pain.

Now I was worried. My shoulder and neck ached, but that was due to being down in the aerobars so much and would fade once I started running. Ditto the ache in my lower back. No way was this knee pain going to fade once I started to run, if anything, it would be worse! All thought of target finishing times went right out the window. This was now a matter of survival and just making sure I finished and did so without hurting myself.

I backed off on how hard I was riding, just focusing on getting finished. Would I be able to run? The pain wasn't getting any worse, but it wasn't improving either.

I finished the third lap worrying constantly about my knee. Lap four crawled by, thank goodness for my personal cheering section... I also saw a couple friends, Nora and Joe, out on their bikes with their daughter Hannah in tow. What a huge boost it was to see them out where I hadn't expected to see anyone when I was so worried about my knee! I finished up lap four, knee still aching and headed back into town with no other racers around. I took the time to reflect... it was a gorgeous day and I had almost finished my 112 mile bike ride! everything as going so well... except for that knee. Would I be able to run!?

Goal time 6:00-6:30

Actual Time 6:54:13 (First half - 3:16:26; Second half - 3:37:37)

My First Ironman AKA The Longest Day - Part 1

I'm having some trouble getting my thoughts together for my racee report, so I'm going to post it in sections. This should also make it more readable.

Pre-Race

I arrived at Plymouth harbor at 5:30 am to a chilly morning with a gusty breeze, a far cry from the warm, calm mornings I had experienced pre-race in Colorado! I began setting up my transition area, but after 5 minutes I decided to pull on my full sleeve wetsuit to keep warm. It was almost 90 minutes until start time but I wasn't the only one making that decision and it was the first time I didn't find myself feeling too hot while wearing a wetsuit out of the water. I finished setting up quickly, simplicity is the key to transitions in my experience, limited as it may be. I chatted with my neighbors a bit and with my friend Nicole, who was doing the Iron Distance Aquabike.

I hydrated, had a bagel and some gummy bears, popped some Endurolytes and just generally tried to pass the time until I boarded the bus to the swim start, which was a half mile or so away.

Once aboard, the sound of nervous chatter emanated from every seat while we waited to get under way. As the bus began to move however, the whole bus fell silent as we realized we were taking the first step on a very long journey.

Swim 2.4 miles 1:28:33

The swim was in Plymouth Harbor, predominantly along the jetty. The tide was all the way out and when we jumped into the water and swam the few strokes towards the starting buoy, we found we were able to stand up while we waited. After a few seconds of standing, I remembered all the crabs I had seen in the harbor and decided to float instead. A few second later, the competitor next to me yelped and jumped. "I just got pinched by a crab!" A lot more people were floating after that, while the crabs wouldn't do any damage, they would certainly hurt.

Soon enough, the horn sounded and we were off! My ironman had begun!

I had forgotten just how salty the ocean was, swimming in the Res and in pools had softened me up and I was spluttering a bit from the water that got in my mouth whenever I breathed. With the tide so low, my fingertips were brushing the silt as I swam, a pleasant thought considering how much junk was in the harbor. Some competitors were so flummoxed by the shallowness that they waded through the really shallow sections.

The swim was going... well, swimmingly... as I moved along the jetty. No waves, no chop... it was pretty awesome.

When I came to the end of the jetty, there was a gap between the end of the jetty and the turnaround buoy and hitting that gap was like swimming into a brick wall. Here the wind had fair play and was whipping up a lot of chop, combined with the incoming tide, waves were in the vicinity of two feet in height, making sighting almost impossible. I had never swam in such conditions before and was having trouble catching my breath as I swam freestyle and had no idea if I was going in the right direction. After a very brief internal debate, I switched over to swimming the breast stroke which made it both easier to breathe and to see. After rounding the buoy, I headed back but was making even slower progress trying to return to the shelter of the jetty than I did on the way out to the buoy.

After what felt like an eternity, I regained the calmer waters of the jetty and made my way back to the starting buoy, switching back to freestyle right away. Soon I was around the starting buoy and making my way to the buoy at the end of the jetty.

The chop beat me up again but this time, as I rounded the buoy, I didn't head back the way I came. Instead the course headed for shore and I rode the wind and tide driven chop towards the dock beside the Mayflower. At this point I was flying through the water, passing buoys before I even knew I was near them. Then the dock was in sight and I was climbing from the water...

Goal time 1:30-1:45

Actual time 1:28:33

Getting close...

What's this? A Blog entry? Yeah, I know.... save the snark, life has been pretty crazy the last few months and blogging about my training has been WAY down my priorities list.

I've got less than two weeks to go until my ironman and found myself with a spare moment so here I am.

Training has been going very well. I feel ready, though I seem to rotate between being excited, nervous and just eager for it to be over. Training has become a very time consuming thing lately, I'm hungry ALL the time and I'm sleeping a lot more. I've also lost 5 to 10 pounds in the last several months putting me below 150 for the first time in several years and I've lost several percentage points in body fat percentage to just below 13%.

I did the 5430 Long Course for the third time on August 9th, I'll have a race report for that soon (I promise) since it's the first race I've actually done more than twice. It's also probably the last time I'll do it (I'll explain why when I do the post).

Discipline in Focus - The Return of the Swim

What's this? Two blog entries in ONE day? Well, I'm making a conscious effort to be more diligent about certain things and this is one of them. My Calendar says today is the day for a Discipline in Focus post and this is the time for me to do it, so here it is.
My swim has been struggling a lot lately, but I'm optimistice that my struggles are resulting in me becoming a better, more balanced swimmer. How? Here's how.
For quite a while I was experiencing soreness and tiredness in my left shoulder that was disprportionate to my right. It's one thing to be beat from a swim, quite another to be struggling, and very frustrated, because one arm is overtired. I got to dread my swims. After some discussions with Mark that mostly involved him knocking a little common sense into me...

Mark: You're icing your shoulder when it's sore, right?
Me: Uhm....

My swimming got cut WAY back and I started from scratch with learning to breathe on my right while swimming. I always breathed on my left before. We're still bringing my yardage back up to where it was before, but now it's with me breathing on both sides (though not bilaterally yet) and with the apparently tricky advice that if my shoulder bothers me, I'll ice it. It's a good thing Captain Obvious has a coach or he might forget to bring his bike to the race one of these days.
I'm not nearly as coordinated breathing on my right as on my left, but it's improving a lot and my shoulder feels fine.

IDT Bike Course

I'm back east for a few days visiting my family, most importantly my brand new niece, Bella.
While I'm out here though I decided it would be a good idea to ride the bike course for the IDT. The course is primarily 4 loops within Myles Standish State Forest, a place wher I actually worked for one summer after I graduated High School, so I knew roughly what to expect. A scenic forext bike ride, some small rollers, no big hills and some stretches with absolutely no shade. That's pretty much what I found during our single loop ride (my friend Nicole joined me). We took a few wrong turns early on and had to stop to check the map throughout.
The roads have no shoulder whatsoever, but traffic is so sparse, that shouldn't be a problem. There is a fair amount of sand on the course in some spots, hopefully they'll have the sense to streetsweep it the day before. There are also a lot of bumps in the road due to the trees in the area, though very few potholes (a common problem in New England). There were very few hills worth mentioning, certainly nothing worth noting compared to the rollers on 36 on the 5430 bike course, not by a long shot. There will be several pretty sharp turns on the course each lap, three turns along the course of more than 90 degrees and two out & back turnarounds.
I felt really good on the ride, we took our time, partly because I kept dropping Nicole whenever I really got into the ride. I really felt great, and could definitely feel the altitude advantage.
All told, the course should be fairly easy, the hills are pretty minor, but I'll have to stay alert and watch the road the entire time watching for bumps.

Land of the Lost

I decided to bike into Denver yesterday to meet up with my friend Priya for dinner. She had been promising me her beet pasta for ages and I was finally going to try it out. First I had to get there though.
I had budgetted 2-3 hours to get there, it should only have been about 30 miles and I had chosen what I thought was a simple route. What actually happened was closer to a 4 hour bike ride and involved me getting lost twice.
The first time I took a turn on Wadsworth Parkway instead of Wadsworth Boulevard and ended up taking a very hairy trip on an overpass over Rte 36 with lots of traffic, no shoulder and a guardrail only about a foot and a half high. I was significantly less than excited about that.
The second time was even worse as I got lost in a less than comfortable neighborhood in West Denver. Let's just say they probably didn't see many people passing through wearing one piece trisuits on TT bikes. I didn't even stop to figure out where I was, I just kept moving, though I was stymied by a couple dead end streets.
By the time I got to Priya's, I was exhausted and starving. Fortunately a shower, food, comfy couch and charming company were all waiting for me.
The beet pasta was worth the trip.

Where's Chaser Been?

It's been far too long since my last post. Life has been chaotic to day the least. Shortly after my last post I was laid off from my job here in Boulder This resulted ina reordering of priorities and blogging about my training fell way down the list behind job hunting, apartment hunting, working part time, helping a friend move, studying for the LEED exam, training and starting my own ane-man design studio. I never would have thought that being unemployed would take up so much time!
My training has lost some edge and focus lately, I'm hoping that psoting here again on a regular basis will help me to rediscover it. I've also been having some issues with my left shoulder during the swim. Very frustrating.
It's time to get back in the swing of things though. Time to start excelling and not just accomplishing.

Regular Features...

I’m going to try and start doing some regular posts here at Chasing Boston. Every Monday there should be a post on one of two subjects, alternating. The first is a review of the last two weeks training and will coincide with the end of each two week cycle I get from Mark. The second will be a focus on one of the disciplines, from varying perspectives. It could be a focus on what I’ve been doing, progress I’ve made, goals, or just an interesting article or snippet of conversation with Mark regarding that particular discipline.

Since I just had a two week block wrap up on Sunday, I’m going to go over it now. Before I do that, I figured I should establish a baseline. First of all, while no two blocks are the same, there is a rhythm or routine that Mark has established around what generally works for my schedule. While I would describe these as typical or average, it’s all open to variation.

Monday: Swim 3-3500yards; Run 40-45 minutes. While the run has some intensity to it, it’s generally easier than my other short runs as a recovery from Sunday.

Tuesday: Bike 70-90 minutes with some intense intervals. This is usually a workout I enjoy a lot.

Wednesday: Swim 3500ish yards, with the main workout involving blocks of 500, what mark has come to call my ‘broccoli’; Run, this has been Nighthawks snowshoe races or a 45 minute run. I’ll miss the Nighthawks runs, though it looks like mark might throw track workouts at me on Wednesdays now, which I really enjoy.

Thursday: Swim 3000ish yards, usually seems to be a workout that’s a little more complicated than the others with more variety on distances and intensities; Bike a little more than an hour with some really short, REALLY intense bursts.

Friday: Swim 3500ish yards; Run 40-50 minutes

Saturday: Bike with the tri club (or long ride on the trainer if weather is nasty). I’ll often toss a VERY easy 5-10 minute jog on the end of the ride for my own sake of loosening up the legs and adjusting them to the bike/run transition

Sunday: Usually two runs, one AM, one PM, typically the same workout in the area of 40-50 minutes each. There’s also a 3500yd swim workout. Recently I’ve taken to doing the first run as a run up to the Boulder Rec, doing my swim, cooling down a bit, then running back as the second run. It makes me feel really efficient and Mark seems to think it’s cool.

So in a given week I’m swimming 5 days for a total of about 17000 yards. I bike 3 days for about 4-5 hours total and run 4 days for about 3.5 hours total.

Going back a second, 17000 yards a week? I’m swimming 9.5 miles per week!? Is that right… !? I double checked the math, and that’s right. Holy crap mark, you’ve got me swimming almost 10 miles a week????

So, the last two weeks (ending Sunday)…

This past block was not a very productive one for me. I caught a cold and missed several swims, which is always the first thing to go when I’m not feeling well. Swimming always seems to make any cold or bug I have feel far, far worse. I still got the runs and bike rides in, but my intensity was down a good bit. I did manage to get to the last Nighthawks race, which was a lot of fun.

So, no breakthroughs or anything this time around, mostly I was just trying to get healthy and keep active.

Random Stuff

My training has been going well, aside from having a cold recently. I'm still struggling (i.e. only occasionally succeeding) at getting up early to do morning workouts, especially swims. Although with the cold I have had, I've been avoiding the pool. Nothing make me feel worse when I'm sick than swimming in a pool. urgh. Today was the first day I really felt close to 100% in a week, which was awesome.

The last Nighthawks snowshoe race was on Wednesday. Gotta wait 10 months for the next one... I really enjoyed them, they really kicked my butt.

I've had my new Asus Eee PC for almost a month now... oh man, I love this thing. I haven't taken it travelling yet, which will certainly make me love it even more, but it really is a fantastic machine. I've started converting my friends as well, one has already gotten one and a few others are considering it.

I Love This Town!

First of all, yes, i know I look like a humongous dork in the photo I posted yesterday. I don't care, i was warm!

I mooshed three workouts today into one, I did a 40 minute run that ended at North Boulder Rec (where I discovered Priya's new roommate is interning) and as I was heading down broadway I came over this hill to a gorgeous view of the foothills and all I could think of was what a lucky sonuvagun I am. Once I got to the pool, I did 3500 yards, and I could feel my abs and obliques engaging like I hadn't noticed before, i don't know if this was good or bad, but there it is.

After the swim I sat in the hot tub for a few minutes, watching the sunlight that was coming through the windows dance on the surface of the water. I also bumped into Andrew Halperin, who every time I see him, I forget his name.

Then I changed back into my running clothes and did another 40 minute run, terminating at home. a couple times on that trip back I got views of the foothills and flatirons that jsut made me want to scram for the shear joy of being alive and living the life I have.

The last time my mind jumped to Ghostbusters and Winston Zedmore at the end of the film rearing back and screaming " I LOVE THIS TOWN!"

Damn right Winston, damn right.

Snowshoeing

A friend of mine tried to get me into snowshoeing a couple years back, I gave it a shot once, but really didn't take to it.

A week and a half ago, another friend and I went to a snowshoe race up at Eldora... perhaps i should have done a snowshoe race in the first place.

the race was on a beautiful clear wednesday night. As we stood at the start I couldn't help but think, "This is living... a beautiful clear moonlit night in the mountains, moon shining down,stars sparkling in the sky, brisk air in my lungs, a wonderful friend at my side and adrenaline pumping as we wait for the race to start."

The race started and I realized I didn't even need my headlamp, the light from the moon and stars cast a gorgeous glow. The race was brutal, 5kish with vicious hills and I'd never run in snowshoes before. 

I spent much of the race walking,wiped out from trying to get up hills.

Priya and I were probably last to cross the finish line, but we didn't care, we were hooked... we had such a blast and immediately resolved to do the rest of the races in the series.

This week, I resolved to run the whole course, now that I had an idea of what running in snowshoes would be like. Priya was fighting a chest and head cold but still did well all things considered. I came so close to running the whole race, but there was a patch of powder towards the end of the loop and the first time I hit it I really struggled and ended up walking a bit to recover. I did much better the other two loops though and that was the only time I didn't run during the race.

Bring on week 3!

Sweets

Those who know me well, know I have a bit of a sweet tooth. Those who know me really well, know I have something of a problem with Thin Mints.

How much of a problem? Well, my Thin Mint order came in today...

Am I a swimmer?

I've been working a lot lately, which has been kind of stressful and made getting my training in difficult at some times.

So when I found myself with a day long, persistent urge to swim... I didn't fight it. It's not a swimming day according to my sched, but I made a quick trip over to the Rec after work because you just shouldn't fight that sort of urge. I didn't swim long, I had dinner and a bike ride to do, but just 15 minutes in the pool really hit the spot.

Music

Confession: With the exception of a Beach boys concert in 1997 (that I don't count due to unusual circumstances) I'm never been to a contemporary concert before Friday night. I say contemporary because the opera and classical music don't seem to belong in the same type of category.

Yes, I'm a dork. Why had I never been to a concert before? Well, to be honest, music has never really been a big part of my life. I didn't grow up listening to a lot of music and the music I did listen to was typically classic rock. Not exactly easy to get tickets to see Queen.

Friday night I went to Boulder Theatre and saw a local band called Paper Bird. My good friend Priya is a huge fan and invited me along. We suffered through the rather long opening acts, or anticipation building and finally, around 11:30 (yeah, 11:30) they came on. I suppose they'd be described as bluegrass or folk.  What I really noticed though was how much FUN they seemed to have together on stage, singing and performing. The singers especially seemed to just be so happy to be doing what they were doing. In spite of the late hour, it was impossible to not get caught up in their joy and the fun and beauty of their music. It wasn't Mozart, it wasn't brilliant, but it was fun and honest and wonderful and I look forward to seeing them perform again.

Bits n Pieces

I got a new computer!

This little puppy comes with 1gb of RAM 160gb of storage, 5 hours of battery life, weighs 2.2 pounds and cost just over $300.

Went on a gorgeous bike ridetoday.It was 50 when I left my house and we went north a bit then out east. here's a view coming back west. Nic view eh?

God I love Colorado!

Where I've been

I found myself, for various reasons, working on a post about goals for the coming year and I got most of the way through the post before realizing that I was looking down the road to where I was going, without first reflecting on where I am and where I’ve been over the past year.

Looking back, it was an interesting year… the first half was almost completely consumed by my thesis. The rest of my time went into training. The work paid off though as I finished graduate school with my masters and got the heck out of Cinci.

When graduation time came around, I was already sitting pretty with a job offer. In February, my employer for my last Co-Op, Boulder Associates, emailed me saying they were looking at their staffing needs for the coming year and would I like a full-time position? Heck yeah!

I moved out to Boulder (aka Heaven!) and managed to even move into the same place I had lived before, that kind of stability is great for someone who had to move almost 10 times in the prior 3 years.

When it came to my training, I took almost 10 minutes off my half-marathon time and almost an hour off my Half-Ironman time (thanks Mark!) and committed myself to doing my first Iron distance race in September 2009. I also got a powertap... huzzah!

Most important of all, I was the best man at my brother’s wedding and my sister asked me to be the godfather for her first child as I am now getting along with my siblings better than I have at almost any other point in my life.

2008 was a  very good year, I hope to make 2009 even better.

CRASH!

I’ve been off the blogging wagon lately since my laptop took a major nosedive. Fortunately, I had a hunch it was coming and backed up my files, but it’s still a bummer, that beast saw me through many, many, many hours of graduate school, thesis and a lot of travel.

Now I need to decide what to do next. My current phone meets a lot of my computing needs and my next phone (I’m thinking of getting a Palm Pre) should meet even more. The laptop that died, while great for when I was in school and needed something portable with desktop power, isn’t ideal for my current needs. Now I’m thinking of either getting a good old fashioned desktop computer, or an ultraportable like an Asus Eee PC. Right now I’m leaning towards the Eee since I like having the portability and I don’t really need the power of a desktop.

 

Any recommendations?

*note: any recommendation referencing Mac or Apple will be lampooned. You’ve been warned.