Weakly review

Last weak was not the best conditions for training, Hurricane Wilma, tree limbs down and the streets littered with all kinds of stuff. Most of all my swimming suffered because the pools are closed. This weaks totals:

Swimming - Nada
Running - 29 miles
Bike - 85 miles

This weekend I....

....went with my friends to the country club, met a blind data (yes she walks funny with that cane) and she doesn't own a bike so she's out-of-here! amazing how people have no clue about fitness/endurance sports or care about them.

...did my 16 mile run, I know it was a typo friday I wrote 6 instead of 16.

...did a lot of yard work getting bushes back in place and 1 tree upright

...forgot about the time change...

...did 75 miles with Tony on Sunday... didn't play golf worked on the yard some more.

...cooked a nice pork loin dinner for Sunday... got plenty of leftovers.

...woke up with a sore back this morning.... did my 25 mile ride anyway. Can't swim today the pool is still closed due to Wilma.

Today begins my new weak....

Late Breaking Update

Ok it's late in the day on a Friday afternoon, almost time to go home so I thought I'd do a quick update.

---- we now have indoor plumbing in our building, no more trips to the parking garage.

---- curfew of 9:00 pm to 6:00 am has been lifted, so I can stay out late tonight or run early, pick one.

---- the traffic lights are still broken, I came a different way to work but got stuck in traffic. 1 hr 20 min to go 16 miles.

---- it's warming up again, the temp today was 82*, so much for fall.


Tony and I did our usual 25 mile ride this morning. I decided to push a little harder today and take the lead in aero position as much as possible and not to let the speedometer go below 20 mph. Fortunately I had Tony gasping for breath today. On the straight-a-way I could only get to 28 mph. I'm convinced I just can't get the turnover fast enough, at a cadence of 100 rpms I change gears and then in a few moments I'm out of breath. Perhaps it has to do with the big muscles calling for to much oxygen?

Tonight some neighbors are gathering at the country club for cocktails (the feathers get caught in my teeth) and I think they are trying to introduce me to a single lady that moved into a different section of our community...just show me a picture of her bike and I'll decide then if I want to ask her out.

Tomorrow is the LSD run with 16 miles on the schedule. I think it's going to be a cool morning. I want to get to the beach in the afternoon. I haven't been down there since Wilma so I want to see it there is any damage and I want to get a swim in and maybe lunch and beer at Doc's boat House.

Sunday will be the LSD bike with Tony. 75 miles is on the schedule and then I'm taking the afternoon to play a little golf. No I'm not riding in a cart, I'm going to walk 9 may 18 holes. Sunday nite I'm having some folks over for wine and snacks on the liana... a chance to mingle with the gang.

Have a great weekend everyone.

How Bad CAN it BE?

OK, so how bad can it be after a Cat 3 Hurricane? There are now 3 million Florida homes without power! Our office building in downtown Naples has no potable water and no sewer. Hence this sign:




Here is the 1st floor bathroom....in the parking lot! Hey I'm on the third floor!

When I came back from lunch...no place to eat..still hungry...my sandwich shop lost it's cold cases.....I saw this truck. Not only do I have to get ducky sanitized..but now I've got to get my jello molds clean!


The drive to work is fun too, many of the traffic lights are missing. During the Hurricane some one climbed up the poles and stole the lights...Fixtures and all... All that is left are the wires! So you have a 4 way stop. Which work well in light traffic with normal people but here we have the beginning of Snowbird season which means a lot of traffic and people who drive with their turn signal on for miles....4 way stop is more like a cluster.... well you know! It took me 1 hour to go 16 miles this morning!

Now they are saying we will get power restored by Nov. 22.... I wonder is that 2005 or 2006?

Where do I sign up for my Katrina debit card? All you can get is 1 bag of ice and three bottles of water. I want my $2,000!

If this were New York City would this story be on the evening news.... Millions without power!

Good Bye Wilma

OK so it has only been two days but it seems like a year has gone by! I survived Hurricane Wilma.

Friday I broke down the office putting all our puters in the conference room, closing the doors to the offices with windows and sent our staff and portfolio manager to our Atlanta office. Our assistant trader refused to leave town and I decided to stay and ride the storm out.

Saturday was spent getting my home ready for the storm. It showered off and on all day. All the furniture from the liana had to be placed in the garage. Anything that could become a projectile had to be secured, including my plants (herbs for cooking and some flowers). I did manage to get a brief 10 mile run in but it wasn't as long as the schedule called but hey a hurricane was coming. I helped Tony briefly put up plywood on his windows and I chose not to put up plywood on my house.

Sunday was very overcast with it threating to rain all day. There was an erie quite, like just before a big snow storm. The wind was calm. Tony and I did our Coconut Point ride and saw three dolphins. I stopped at 30 miles but Tony continued on for 40. After a brief dip in the pool, I continued on with my prep for Hurricane Wilma. I made ice, got my cooler filled with water and beer and more ice, filled the guest room bathtub with water so I could flush the toilet when the water didn't work. I checked the batteries in the flash light, filled my oil boat lamp with oil and boiled some eggs. When everything was done all there was to do was wait. and wait and wait and wait....

Sunday night at 11 pm was when it all began and begin it did with a heavy downpour that sounded like hail from a winter storm on the glass. The wind began to pick up after having been a relatively calm day. I decided to try to get some sleep before the storm got to bad. I was able sleep until 2 am when the winds began to howl in earnest. My trees in the back yard looked like they were in a Warring blender. There was no sleep from that point on.

At 6 am Monday morning the eye passed just south of my house, 20 miles or so, I was so happy to have the eye pass because of my experience with Hurricane Charlie. During Charlie that backside of the storm was much calmer but not so with Wilma, the WINDS INCREASED! It was then we saw the winds speed pick-up. The winds topped out at 121 mph in Naples. I had my front window begin to leak and three trees went down. Tony (my riding buddy) lost his cage and had water coming in his front door. As the day worn on I kept expecting the winds to die down. By noon the local weather people we saying the storm had passed us but we were still experiencing a 25 mph sustained winds with gust to 40 mph! That lasted until dusk. Most people around me lost electric and phone servcice. Fortunately I had electric but no phone, cell phone or cable. Tony had no electric or phones.

Tuesday saw the dawning of a new day! In our community there were trees down everywhere! Naples was flooded and had no electric, water, sewer or telephones. I worked from my house as much as possible but even cell service was sporadic. Tony, my neighbor from Iceland and help me pull up my three downed trees and we help my neighbor with two of his trees. Tony brought over his frozen food to put in my beer frig. I did mainage to get a brief 10 mile ride in to survey damage to the neighborhood.

Today, Wednesday, it looks somewhat normal. Just a few down trees. Tony and I did our 25 mile ride plus a little to look at the collapsed carports. Yes some people parked their cars under the carports and now had squished cars. By 2:00 pm our office building was opened but we have no water or sewer. I reconnected our puter system and re-started the servers. Surprise!!! every thing works. So tomorrow is a "normal" business day.

Thanks for the emails and notes. Sorry I could answer the phone messages since the neither the cell phones of the house phones work. But eveything works now!

On Her Way - Wilma!

Well it looks like old Wilma will not get here until Sunday. She is planning on interrupting my Sunday morning LSD ride. I hate her already!

This morning was the 7 mile tennis ball run. I started out slow doing the warm-up 2 miles at a 8:30 pace then it was time to have fun with a ball. I tried to push myself this weak. Mile three saw 8:05 and mile four 7:57. At mile five I was ready to stop but pressed on doing mile five at 8:02. The next two mile were just a cool down but when I checked the splits there were 7:55 and 7:40..go figure. I guess I can run faster not using the tennis ball.

I couldn't swim at lunch because of lack of staff at the office so hopefully I can swim on the way home from work.

WILLLLLLMA!

Yup it's from the Flintstones...Willllma! but we are facing a different Wilma. Wilma the Cat 5 Hurricane has Southwest Florida in her sites. UGH not again! We went through this last year with Charlie. Charlie's eye passed 15 miles from my house with 145 mph winds. Yes it sounded like a freight train for 2 hours straight. We lost 100 trees on my street and I was without power for 3 days.






So I'm busy at work making arrangements to fly our staff out to various places (Atlanta, Jacksonville....Etc) and tomorrow I'm taking the puter system apart to place in our safe room. Friday we are giving everyone the day off and I'll be at home securing my house. I think I'm going to stay rather than bug out. I think I have enough beer and ice to make it thru the weekend. After all I can leave my bike.

I had a great time n St. Pete Beach and the town of Pass-a-Grille. I saw a lot of cyclists and runners. It's a thriving TRI town and a lot of the MAD DOGS train at St Pete Beach. I also won a free dinner a the Salt Rock Cafe in Indian Shores.

So it's back to the grind... Today was a bike day 25 miles ave 18.5 mph and tomorrow is a fartlek run with the tennis ball..... last weaks mileage was a mess from my conference....


LAST WEAKS TOTALS

Run 34 miles
Bike 110 miles
Swim 3x's open water swim in the Gulf at St. Pete's Beach

Health Update:

My back has healed nicely..Although I can't see it. I went to the Docs on Monday. They suggested I try to keep it wet...swim more?I've had some back and leg pain this week so I'm taking some industrial strength moltrin. I get to see my brain surgeon next week if Wilma allows.

On The Road Again

OK, I'm not Willie., but I am on the road. I'm in St. Pete's Beach for some meetings. So today I ran the beach then down to the inlet and back. Just a quick 6 miles. Since I have to connect to the web via my Treo it's a slow web, so I'll write more later.

What is it with me?

Why does everybody always pick on me?

OK not everybody but bees! Yup, I got stung by a bee again this morning on my usual ride with Tony. I felt something sticking me inside my jersey on my left side. I tried to wipe/swipe/itch whatever it was away while riding but I still had that stuck feeling. When I got home I had a nice welt.

Coffee Drink & Collie Encounter

You remember our run ins with Coffee Drinker and Collie, it's an on-going battle. So yesterday, on our daily 25 mile ride thru our community, we pass Coffee Drink and Collie's house four times. They live on a dead end street so we turn around at the end and come back two times causing us to pass by four times...you get it?

So as we are heading up the street on our second circuit we are approaching Coffee Drinkers and Collies house with Tony pulling and me dragging my hinney behind. Just seconds before we reach coffee Drinker and Collie's driveway, a pick-up truck in the driveway peels wheels in reverse and goes from dead stop to the middle of the road without stopping. The driver then puts the truck in forward and again peels wheels to drive down the street at breakneck speed! Of course Tony and I are startled at this and hit the brakes to slow from our 22 mph, but had we been just seconds faster the truck would have run us over!

After we compose ourselves, we continued on to the cul-de-sac and turned around to head back down the street when who should appear? None other than Coffee Drinker. Apparently the truck hit the recycling container and spilled it's contents on the street. He was picking up the spilled beer bottles. As we come close to him he looked up and smiled a big grin. Tony told him had we been a few seconds quicker we would have been hit. He just grinned at us! THIS IS WAR PEOPLE! WAR I TELL YOU!

Weakened Update

So this was suppose to be a great training weakend, it didn't turn out that way!

By the time I dragged myself out of bed at 7:30 it was already 81* and high humidity, so Saturday was off to a poor start. I filed both of my fuel belt bottles but I left them in the beer frig in the garage while I did my first section. As I completed my warm up 4 miles, I realized I need to take my bottles with me. So at the four mile mark I stopped at the house and donned my fuel belt.

As I left my house for the second time, I decide to stick with LSD not trying to set any PR's just get-her-done! At seven miles I stopped to refill one of the bottles and noticed my right calf felt twitchy. At the ten mile mark I put some ice on it and added ice to my hat. Unfortunately the 13 miles mark goes dangerously close to my house so...yup I quite at 14 miles. When I got home I quickly showered at my pool shower to rinse the salt and sweat before jumping in the pool, it was then my right leg had a minor cramp!

Sunday was a little cooler so when Tony and I started out on our ride my leg felt fine. We did a loop in our community before going out to test my calf. Everything seemed fine so we headed down to Coconut Point. As we passed the high school they were just finishing up a 10K race and we saw the BOP'ers finishing.

At Coconut Point we usually watch for dolphins, but it started to rain. So we quickly at our Clif Bars and headed out again...in the rain. Fortunately it was just a brief downpour but it was just enough to get us wet. By the time we got to the HWY intersection the sun was out! From then on it was our usually ride taking turns pulling until we got to our community's back gate. By then I was pretty tired so we quit at 57 miles.

Weakly Totals

Run 29 miles
Bike 115 miles
Swim 6,000 yards

Todays 25 mile ride I felt that small twichy feeling in my calf, like before you get a cramp. But unlike Saturday, I did get a cramps, it just feels twitchy. I'm going to eat a couple of banana's and push the salt to see if that helps.

Duck Sanitizing

As I'm driving home from work, boys and girls, I listened to a commercial for a Duck Sanitizing Company. It seems that ducks are full of mold, mildew and germs that can cause all kinds of illness in humans. This company will come to your house and clean the insides of your ducks with a disinfectant that is harmless to the ducks. Imagine having your duck's insides cleaned! Not only that, but they guarentee that your ducks will be free of mold, mildew and germs for one year. ONE YEAR PEOPLE!

Now my duck, like the one pictured above, lives in my swimming pool. He has his own little skimmer house that he can "duck" into from time to time. For the most part I get him out of his skimmer to float around in the evenings, sometimes I even put floating candles in so he can see better in the dark while I sit in the hot tub and drink champagne with guests.

I've never thought about having having Ducky (that's his name) sanitizied! I do scrub him with a soft scrub brush and pool cleaner from time to time but never sanitized.

When Alexander visited me, I bought Ducky two friends at Disney World. Alexander named them Captain and Pirate (it sounded better when Alexander said their names in Italian...now I forget the Italian pronounciation of Capitan and Pirate). Unfortunately Alexander took Captain and Pirate home to Rome to live in his pond and once again Ducky is alone. I never thought about having Captain and Pirate sanitized before they left the States! How foolish!

Well boys and girls learn from this...always have your ducks sanitized.

It rained this morning, to hard for a bike ride so I ran 3 miles to keep loose. Tomorrow is my LSD run of 16 miles and perhaps to the University pool in the afternoon. Sunday is the LSD ride with Tony of 70 miles in the morning and to the beach in the afternoon (Doc's Beach House again). Hopefully this rain will pass and it will be a nice weekend.

Have a good weekend. Best wishes to those racing: April-Anne, Dianna, Susan, the other Susan, and others!

Helmetless Daze

Ok so I'm a little late getting ready this morning for my 25 mile ride with Tony. After all I did get my bandages changed by my neighbor but no massage (RATZ) and I had a lousy nights sleep because turning over on my booboo kept waking me up. Plus it had rained early this morning and the roads were wet so I was getting Roo ready to ride when Tony shows up helmetless! Of all days to ride without a helmet with rain slicked roads. So it was a ride back to Tony's house to wake up his family so he can get into the house to get his helmet.

As we are riding today,we keep wondering as we pass people with dogs, is that the person who complained? Or was it Coffee Drinker?

I get an email weekly from our community, its a community newsletter email. The email tells what is going on this week. Like Happy Hour Friday is buy one get one (BOGO), or the tennis pro is doing Aerobic Tennis Mon- Wed - Fri, mens golf is Friday afternoon....well you get the idea. So there is a special note to remind people to walk/jog/run on the side walks and not in the road. I wonder does this include dog walkers?

We have names for those people we do see....Coffee Drinker, Tippy Toe Runner or the Skinny Lady. Today we saw Smiley I guess he is back from summer vacation. Haven't seen Smiley in 6 months!

Tuesday Thots

Today I.....

...wanted to sleep in but I got up anyway. Maybe its the medicine?
... am suppose to take of my bandages but I can't reach them. So now what?
...ran 6 miles thru the woods in 57:45 and saw a snake. Red and orange snake sleeping or dead.
...was 15 minutes late for work, so I'm leaving 15 minutes early to make up for it!

Today I...

...can't swim at lunch because of my bandages, so I guess I'll sit at my desk and work. ugh!
...got tickets for the White Sox game in Chicago on Sunday..I'm giving them to our Portfolio Manager because I don't want to go to Chicago.
...wondered why I don't get tickets to things I can use like Kona or IM FL or IM anywhere? Even Boston Marathon?

This evening I...

...am going to ride afterwork since I can't swim.
...going to ask my neighbor who is a massuse to change my bandages. May be I can get a massage too.
....am going to wish I had gone to Chicago for the game tonight!

Wild and Rainy Weekend with Collie Update

Hey everyone Holly did great in the Army Ten Miler, lengthened to 11.5 miles. Read her post click here.

Friday was the regular weekday ride of 25 miles. I was uneventful or so I thought until Sunday when the guard at the gate stopped Tony and I on the way out for our LSD ride. Apparently someone complained (Coffee Drinker) that we are riding to fast thru the community. The complaint was that we scared his dog! Kewl!

Saturday was a lsd run. The humidity was down but the sun was still bright. I did my long route thru the woods but at the 6 mile mark it hit me! Diarrhea! When you gota go, you gota go...so fortunately I was near the fitness center and was able to stop in there! That hasn't happened to me in a long time. After a brief stop I was able to finish out my 15 miles.

Sunday was a lsd ride with Tony. We did the Coconut Point Ride with a stop at the Pelican Bay to watch for dolphins. None were seen! On the way to Pelican Landing, Tony and I saw a peleton on 8 cyclist going the other way. I was surprised that there were that many active cyclists around. On the way back we had a strong headwind. We each took turns pulling but it was a hard trip. After 40 miles my legs were tired.

Both days, Saturday and Sunday I wanted to go to the beach to swim. But at 2:00 pm the sky clouded up and a thunderstorm moved thru the area lasting until dusk. It seems we are experiencing rainy season in the fall this year. Go figure.

Today I didn't have my normal run, it was Doctor's day. I had two more somethings removed to send for biospy. This also means no swimming for a couple of days. UGH! They also found I have another tumor growing on my left flank over where my left kidney should be but fortunately I don't have a left kidney., so I have room for the tumor. So I'm going to have to set up an appointment with my surgeon. I wonder if I get a frequently surgery discount? Or surgery miles?