A New Perspective

Intentionally, this blog will reflect my journey leading up to the 2013 Ironman and the challenges I face along the way.  That said, never in my wildest dreams did I suspect that one of my challenges would be an injury to my wife, Liz.  As mentioned in my last post, Liz severely fractured both of her wrists last Sunday requiring surgery, titanium plates and pins! Relatively speaking, she's making good progress in her recovery although I can tell it's going to be a long, slow process.  At this point, she requires 100% of my care and attention which I'm able and glad to provide.  I'm taking the week off from work.  

Life changes abruptly when one loses the use of their arms, hands and fingers!  Her left arm has not started to respond and has very limited movement.  Things being relative, her right arm and hand is recovering nicely and she has gained back limited use of of both her hand and fingers.  That said, Liz finds it very difficult to do even basic tasks such as hold a tooth brush, silverware, or a cup.

Already this experience has helped me to gain compassion for the tremendous difficulty people (we see each day) are experiencing.  The sacrifice of wounded servicemen, people with physical challenges and the elderly...

Seemingly insignificant, my training is going fairly well.  I've adjusted the times of my training and how I train, but I'm almost able to keep up with my schedule, more on this next time.    

Hope this finds you well!    

ER Visit

My Saturday schedule called for an easy paced 6-mile run.  I had what I call concrete feet...my legs felt heavy and I was generally sluggish.  By mile three however I started to find a little rhythm and finished the run fairly relaxed.
10 minutes in to my 2.5 hour bike workout on Sunday morning while at spin class, I was told that my wife had been rushed to the ER...

Long story short, my wife Liz fell from a ladder that morning and severely fractured both bones in both arms at the wrist!  X-rays indicated that surgery was necessary and lasted some three hours.  She spent the night in recovery at the hospital.  As I post this a day later, I'm sitting by her side still in the hospital waiting for a possible check-out today.  Swelling has gone down a bit and her finger dexterity is better though still very minimal.  A bit surreal for sure...
The kids and I did well last night and I was on my bike trainer at 4:30 am this morning in order to get the kids on the school bus on arrive at the hospital by 8:00!  
More later

The new normal

The first recognizable effect of the 21-day nutrition detox occurred this morning and caught me by surprise. 

A brief reminder; I’m restricted to vegetables, fruit, limited grain (in the form of a ½ cup of lentils or brown rice per day) and a protein supplement…no caffeine! Up until this point, I regularly drank several cups of coffee per day and often used a vitamin-based energy supplement with my workouts.  I’ve had neither for 5 days.  This morning, feeling like I would need a little boost to keep-up in masters swim class, I consumed my vitamin energy supplement between 5:30 and 7:oo am.  It’s now 11:30 and I’m still very much feeling the effects of the energy boost!  What blows me away is that in 5 short days my body has recalibrated a “new normal,” one of being caffeine & supplement free.  5 days ago the coffee and supplements helped me to “feel normal.”  This of course is due to the tolerance my body had built!  Unreal and a bit scary. 

Btw…despite great apprehension, I’ve had no ill-effects from the coffee restriction…worst case side effect has been an occasional mild headache. 

Philippians 4:13

A triathlon buddy of mine stopped in to see me at my office today.  We talked about many things; life, kids, dogs, tri training, etc. etc.  On his way out the door he saw a Kicking Bear poster that  hangs in my office and was intrigued by it.  I explained that Kicking Bear is a kids mentor program started by Ray Howell, a friend of mine.  I shared Ray’s story and mentioned that when Ray became a Christian he devoted his life to helping underprivileged kids and formed the Kicking Bear mentor program.  

My buddy said, "that’s pretty neat and reminds me of a cage boxer I was watching on TV who sported a Philippians 4:13 tattoo across his back." My friend went on to tell me how he had looked up the verse and found it to read; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  I said, “I know the verse very well…Philippians 4:13 is my theme verse for my Ironman More Than a Race mission!”

I have often taped this verse to my bike in preparation for a race -

Super cool coincidence!

I’m on day 5 of the 21-day nutrition cleanse.  All is going well but I’m finding it challenging to prepare my food.  I’m trying to be creative with food prep and make dishes other than salads.  It takes a bit of planning especially during the work-week.  Today is the first day that I’ve felt tired….it probably doesn’t help that I was in the pool at 5:30 this morning!

Anyway…I hope you are well and enjoying life.

Lee                 

Another Serving of Veggies?

The last few days have been fairly uneventful…

Training is going well and lately I’ve had strong swim, bike and run workouts.  Strong to the degree that I added a half marathon on March 16^th to my race calendar.  The earliest season half I’ve attempted, by far.  Interesting sidenote, 99% of my hamstring and calf issues have suddenly gone away…again, adding to the sense of well being. 

A little hesitant to bring this up because I get some weird looks, but, I’m on day three of the nutrition cleanse that I’ve mentioned in earlier posts.  Essentially my diet is limited to vegetables, fruit, brown rice, lentils and supplemental protein.  I’ve always enjoyed vegetables as a large part of my diet, albeit as side dishes, but so far this in itself is not too bad.  This said, the cravings of bread, coffee and sweets are proving to be strong!

Hope you are well!

Lee 

Happy Valentines Day

Couple things today…

I finished week two with the masters swim group (there are only two of us) at LTF.  A great workout and the on-deck coach seems to know what she’s doing.  Join us if you’re interested (and in Minnetonka, MN) Thursday mornings at Crosstown club at 6:00 am.  The second thing…I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I may do a 21-day nutrition cleanse / purification.  Supplies have arrived; I start tomorrow!  More on this later but suffice to say that I’ll be eating like a rabbit for the next 21-days!         

  

Particularly fitting today, I opened a valentine card from my father-in-law and inside I found a most generous Kenya Children’s Fund sponsorship!  Ironically it was my in-laws Gene and Jeanne that introduced me to KCF many years ago.  Over the years, Gene travelled to Kinyago-Dandora several times and has experienced the overwhelming poverty.  His gift is most generous because I know he is a long-standing sponsor of KCF and this is above and beyond.  A thankful shout-out also goes to Bill, a life-long family friend who sent in a wonderful gift as well…I’m humbled by the these two men an their immediate response to help support my Ironman effort and bring attention to the Kenya Children’s Fund!    

It occurs to me that some of you have no idea how to sponsor KCF because my blog site does not include the sponsorship brochure I made…please post a comment if you would like a brochure e-mailed or sent by USPS.  And too please refer to my January 18th blog for a bit of background.

Distance  Food, Clothing Education       Cost

1-mile.............. 1 month.........................$38

2-miles............ 2 months.......................$76

6-miles............ 6 months.......................$228

12-miles..........12 months......................$456

Coach D Checks-In

I’m kind of wimpy when it comes to winter running but, the temp was forecasted to be around 30 degrees on Saturday - I agreed to meet a few guys (including my tri coach) at Gear West and run an easy 5-miles.  Great fun!  Then, that afternoon our family strapped on our x-country skis and did a nice 4-mile loop at Carver Park - Again, great fun!  

The next day my schedule called for 2.5 hours of biking…I knocked-off two spin classes, a 90-minute followed by a 60!  Coach D came for the 60-minute.  Not sure if there was a reason he was checking in on me this weekend or simply that he too needed a run and bike workout, nonetheless, fun to see him.  

Add snow shoveling all weekend and it’s no wonder I went to bed at 8:15 on Sunday night, seriously!      

2013 Race Schedule

Thought you might like to see how my race schedule highlights are shaping up 

March 10th - LTF Cycle Palooza

2 hour spin class event

April 13th - Fred Kurz

10-mile run

April 20th - ITU San Diego Olympic triathlon

.9 mile swim / 25 bike / 6-mile run

May 5th - Lake Mtka Half Marathon      

13.1 mile run

May 11th - 13 MN Walleye Fishing Opener                          

Rich-in-tradition fishing with my son, father and fishing pals of the last 30 years!

May 19th - Gear West Duathlon

3 mile run / 17 bike / 3 mile run

June 8th - Liberty Half Ironman Triathlon

1.2 mile swim / 56 bike / 13.1 mile run

June 21st - 25th Manitoba Walleye Fishing               

Last year I brought my wetsuit and running shoes to fishing camp, they thought I was out of my mind!

July 28th - Chisago Lakes Half Ironman Triathlon

1.2 mile swim / 56 bike / 13.1 mile run

August 3rd - Tour De Tonka

100 mile bike ride

September 5th–9th - Wisconsin Ironman

2.4 mile swim / 112 mile bike course / 26.2 mile marathon run 

Brick Workouts

For you racers out there…here’s some info on bricks I referenced in my January 28th post.  

How Often Should You Run After Riding 

By Matt Fitzgerald / January 31st, 2013

http://triathlon.competitor.com/2013/01/training/how-often-should-you-run-after-riding_18843

A transition run is a short run—usually 10 to 20 minutes—after a full bike ride. Whereas bricks prepare the athlete more comprehensively for the race experience, transition runs are more narrowly focused on preparing the athlete for the transition from riding to running. 

According to elite triathlon coach Cliff English, whether you do occasional bricks or more frequent transition runs should depend on the distance of your races. “The long-course athletes I coach usually do one brick per week,” he says. “Short-course athletes do multiple short transition runs.”

The idea here is that a short run after a bike ride offers largely the same running-specific fitness benefits as a longer independent run but with less pounding on the legs.  While frequent transition runs may help you fit it all in and avoid injury, coaches caution against depending on them. “It’s important to run on fresh legs sometimes. 

While there’s no magic number for frequency of post-ride runs, a few basic considerations will help you settle on a number that, if not quite magic, works best for you.

I found more on running off the bike on the USA Triathlon website…

http://www.usatriathlon.org/about-multisport/multisport-zone/multisport-lab/articles/bricks-to-build-speed-020513.aspx

Hope this finds you healthy!

Nagging Hamstring

Training is ramped up and going well.  I’m swimming about 4,500 yards, biking about 4 hours and running 12 miles a week.   My body is responding quite well except for a nagging hamstring / calf thing going on in my right leg.  It’s kind of dormant and hides in the background…not severe enough to slow me down or prevent me from training, but just enough of an issue to mess with my head a little.  I’m trying to be very careful and not injure myself...

I (KCF) received a sponsorship on Saturday from our good family friend, Tom.  Pretty ironic timing…Tom has been extremely generous to our family over the years by providing full access to his dream-come-true horse facility.  My wife, Liz and daughter Sarah keep their horses at Tom & Nancy’s and visit “the barn” most every day if not twice a day!  What’s ironic is that I was thinking about all that Tom has done for our family over the years and in the mail that very day arrives a sponsorship check from him!  Tom is perhaps the most generous man I know!  Thank you, Tom...what a blessing!

My first sponsorship!

Earlier this week I sent out a note to several friends and family briefly outling my mission as I run Ironman Wisconsin...thank you for the kind words of encouragement many of you returned! 

I'm excited to share with you that my long-time friend from Michigan stepped up big time today and sponsored my first 6 miles! 

In 2010, Ken and I took a hunt safari to South Africa...wow, what an experience.  That said, it was our extended trip to the Kenya Children’s Fund school in Kenya that was life-changing for Ken and I.   

Ken took the photo of our sponsored family; (r to l) Teresia, me, Sabina, Teresia’s son Ben, & Michael.  Teresia, is the oldest of her siblings Michael and Sabina.       

Ken's e-mail read…I can still remember it like it was last year; visiting your sponsored family.  A real opportunity to make a difference and you’re opening the door to allow folks to participate in that all important ministry!  All I can say is; thanks!  My response to Ken was...you’re the one who's making the difference with your contribution to KCF – thanks buddy!

My January 18th post below will give you background on my efforts with KCF as I run Ironman Wisconsin in September.