Not a lot to report today. Amanda and I got an early start to the day with a run, followed by a short bike ride. We then took a nice dip in the pool at our hotel, before heading into town. We were supposed to be there for Amanda to be interviewd at 1:00pm, but nobody was there to enjoy the interview, so they postponed it. The expo scene definitely gets a bit later start down here when compared to the IMNA events back home. It seems like everything will get underway tomorrow, with registration starting.

Amanda takes Friday off prior to race weekend, so we'll not have much to do exercise-wise. There is a press conference at 10:30 followed by a tv interview. These should be it as far as commitments go, so we should be done pretty early in the day.

I am really looking forward to watching this race. Amanda is set to have a fun time out there, and provided she plays her cards right, she is going to be qutie competitive with the others. I wouldn't say there is a clear-cut favorite out there, so the day will got to whomever executes the smartest race. Should be fun, indeed!

That's about it for now. I'm going to see about importing a few photos from the digital camera now!

Adios

WOW! I'm quite the slacker when it comes to posting new Blog updates! Sorry 'bout that; it's mostly because I've been paying each time we hit the internet cafes, and I'm trying not to break the bank on this alone. It'll be much more fun to break the bank on chocolate, wine, and some ice cream post-race. That's right, I'm getting closer to being back on the junk! Since I've been battling this case of giardia and blastocystis hominis (so fun to say), I've been on the ulta-potent anti-biotic, so alcohol has been strictly off limits. It turns out that my liver is not able to handle it right now. On top of that, I'm lactocse intolerant, as a result of the out-of-balance intestinal flora. I'll be kicking this soon enough, and then it's back to the simple treats.

Amanda is really shaping up to have a great race. It's finally race week, and she's come around quite well. We are finally not on US time, so that's a big plus. It's really a good thing for us to arrive so early, in order to adjust. We have been doing some really nice training, and now that it's time to taper a bit more, we're even doing some fun sightseeing.

I'll have to post more info later, as my time just ran up.

Hope all's well in the northern hemisphere... summer with Christmas coming is quite fun for us!

Until next time.

Wow! It's been a long time since my last post. A lot has happened since then, so I'll quickly try to bring everyone up to speed:

After returning from SOMA, I made an appointment with a gastroenterologist to determine if my problems were resolving. It turns out that my previous diagnosis of intestinal ischemia was a bit off. My current diagnosis (after a somewhat unpleasant round of testing!) is giardia and another parasite called blastocystis hominis. It turns out I ingested these nasty bugs while drinking too much lake water in Madison or at Timberman. Bummer. I am glad to know why things went wrong, but bummed to have such a nasty afliction. I'm now on some powerful antibiotics to right things. In the meantime, I'm happily out of shape, and a bit weak from all the drugs, etc. I'll be back to normal in no time, if I can just get over this jet lag...

... yes, Amanda and I are Down Under, after a long, yet uneventful trip to Busselton, Western Australia. We're here for Amanda's season finale: the IM WA! It's a great town; a bit of sleepy beach town. We're settled in our new accommodations, which is a pretty fancy beach resort. We've got our very own apartment that has all the luxuries (more really!) that our home in Boulder affords us.

The training has been pretty relaxed, as we're just trying to back in the swing of things. (I'm basically doing whatever workouts are right for Amanda to get on track for her race... it's very fun, actually!) Later today we are hoping to get ahold of our missing bike box! It never arrived in Syndey, and has since made the trip to Perth, but not further down the road to Busselton. We have been ok up to now, but are now anxious to have the wheels: the race is in thirteen days!

That's about it for now. We're off to get a bit of food at the natural store, and to follow up our early morning swim with some more breakie and perhaps a run.

Until the next time (hoping it won't be too long), buh bye!

So the race season is finally behind me! Amanda and I travelled to Tempe, Arizona over the weekend, to participate in the Soma Triathlon. Our friend Jeff Suffolk is the race director, and he was kind enough to invite us out to the events. We had planned on going for quite sometime, and were looking forward to having a good time out there. However, we both ran into a few hurdles going into the weekend. First off, I had been struggling to get back to normal energy levels since my downfall in Hawaii. I found that I was feeling better for the most part, but I did not feel very energetic. Then, to top it off, I came down with a bit of a chest cold! Unfortunately, I passed it along to Amanda just before we were about to leave for Arizona... not good. Nonthesless, we had already committed to the race, and we knew that it was going to be a quality event. I was hoping to end the season on a more positive note after Hawaii, and Amanda wanted to have a tune-up race before Australia. So off we went.

We arrived on Friday, and went directly to the Soma Cafe. I had shipped my bike there directly from Hawaii, so we needed to pick that up. Plus, we had been invited to dine there during our weekend in Arizona. Soma is a great restaurant, created by and run by nutritionists, doctors, and athletes. Their goal is to provide healthy food and a fun environment in which to eat it. They are successful on both counts: the food is great, and it's a very casual place to hang out. They plan on opening one in Boulder soon, and I must admit that I'm really looking forward to that day.

After a large late breakfast (a pancake that nearly knocked me out!), we went back to the hotel for a long nap. We both felt the need to get as much rest as possible, seeing as how we were both so under the weather.

Our next obligation was quite fun: a gathering back at Soma Cafe that evening. There was a bit of a "meet and greet" with the pro athletes competing, so we joined up with Tim Deboom, and later Chris Legh to enjoy some more great food and to talk about the upcoming race. I think we all really enjoyed the night, as there were some super nice folks there, including Brad (Soma's owner), Todd, and the rest of the Soma staff.

On Saturday morning, Amanda and I opted for a quick run before we headed back to Soma... once again! I felt good for about fifteen minutes, but unfortunately didn't have much zip on the return trip. I was definitely starting to doubt that I would be strong enough to race the half ironman the next day.

Once again, we grabbed Tim and headed out for an awesome breakie out at Soma. We really had no obligations, so we just chilled out, relaxing and chatting for a couple hours. I must say that I really enjoyed getting to know Tim a little better. He's a really nice guy, and I think we all just enjoyed having a low-key day.

Later that afternoon, I put the bikes together, and we headed down to Tempe Town Lake. We signed up for the race, and jumped into the water for a quick swim. The water was nice enough to go sans wetsuit, although the race day temps would be cool enough to allow them.

Once we were done with the sign-up process, we did a brief Q & A for Jeff and some of teh triathletes, and headed back to the hotel for some more rest. Next up was another trip to Soma!

This time we dragged Chris along, and the four of us enjoyed a delicious pre-race meal. I was feeling ok, but definitely not normal. In spite of all the great food, I didn't have my standard appetite, and so I found myself contemplating not racing at all. I just didn't want to do any more harm to my body... although it seemed like it was going to be such a fun race!

Sunday morning came, and I still was unsure as to whether or not I would race. I felt pretty lousy, so I decided to ask Jeff if I could switch to the Quarterman, knowing that it would be a lot less taxing on my body. Fortunately, he was ok with that request, and I jumped in the water for the ealier/ shorter race.

I'll save all the details for a brief race report on my website, but suffice it to say that I had a fun time, and it was a REALLY good thing I did not do the half!

We're back in Boulder now, and the plan is to rest my bones for a few days, prior to heading back out the door to give Amanda some company in her final prep for IMWA! She's going to have a great race down there. Even though she was under the weather, and she took a wrong turn on the bike, she notched a third victory for the season! She's on a roll, indeed!

Until next time...

After what felt like a full recovery from my time in Hawaii, I have been trying to lay low this week, as I began feeling symptoms of a cold setting on. In the time after a marathon, athletes are 26% more likely to get a cold, so one can imagine the how good the chances are after an Ironman! I am pretty sure my immune system was at an all-time low post-race, and I've been doing everything I can do avoid getting full-blown sick! I have been pretty low on the overall energy, but am doing my best to eat and sleep a ton, with hopes that I'll be back to normal soon enough.

Amanda and I travel to Tempe tomorrow for the Soma Half Ironman, and I'd like nothing more than to have a fun race, and therefore erase (or replace) the memories of the tough times in Kona!

In the meantime, Amanda's training has been going very well. She's really putting in some good, hard work, and has opted out of tapering for this weekend's half ironman. I think she'll be fine, although she might not be able to push herself quite as hard as she normally does while racing. Overall, she's primed for a really great race at the end of November down in Australia.

That's about it for now... until next time,
m

I'm back in Boulder, and have made what feels pretty close to a full recovery! I am now able to eat just about anything (although I've been asked to put my consumption of red meat on hold for a while), and I'm no longer experiencing any bathroom issues! That's a very good thing, indeed!

I'm taking it pretty easy exercise-wise, but I'm still hoping I'll be up to full-speed by the end of the week. Amanda and I are off to Tempe, and are both scheduled to compete in the Soma Half Ironman. My friend, Jeff Suffolk is the race director, and he was kind enough to invite us out there to race. It takes place on much of the IM Arizona course, so I've got plenty of familiarity with each leg. I'm hoping I'll be feeling great, as I look forward to having one final race to end the season on a high note. Last year I traveled down to Mexico for that very reason, and this time it'll be an above-the-border experience... should be fun.

Well, I'm attempting to get back on Mountain time, so I had better head towards some sleep. Thanks for checking in, and I'll be back soon.

Until then.

I've got a bit of time prior to heading home later tonight, so I thought I'd do a quick update on the old race. It's not the fun play-by-play, nor are ALL the gory details included, but it sums up what I finally have found out happened to me. The long story short goes like this:

I spent quite a while on Tuesday speaking with Dr. Bob Laird, the IM medical director about my symptoms. It turns out that prior to race day, I was suffering from an intestinal viral infection. It did not affect me muscularly, or physically speaking, and allowed me to still feel fresh and ready to roll. However, I did have some abdominal pain in the six to eight days prior to the race. Once in the swim, I took on a bit too much sea water which (combined with the virus) caused my gut to begin shutting down. Over the last 15-20 minutes of the swim, I got quite sick, and took T1 to ease back into feeling ok. Once on the bike, I immediately attacked, in an attempt to catch the next main group. However, I struggled along behind the chase group chasing the lead group. I never questioned that I would eventually gain ground, and make my way; however, at mile 40 I ended up on the side of the road vomiting up everything I had tried to take in (including the sea water). I figured that was my chance to start with a clean slate, but it turned out I was quite weak for the next thirty miles. At that point, I turned things around and rode well for about twenty five miles.

Starting the run, my goal was to replace all the calories I had not gotten on the bike: big mistake! I pushed through ten miles at a decent effort, struggling but thinking I could still salvage the day with a 3:05 marathon. However, once on the Queen K, my inability to get calories in (I was bloating and burping my way along), I hit the bottom. I ended up walk/ running the rest of the marathon... ultimately teaming up with Heather Fuhr, who was also way off pace.

In the end, my diagnosis was that I suffered from mild intestinal esquema, as a result of my gut not allowing anything to enter. In a bad case esquema results in what happened to Chris Legh in 1997... my case was nowhere near this bad, as I did not push myself through the discomfort on the run.

I spent the three days post-race unable to eat and getting VERY familiar with the toilet.

After one day of liquids only, I have progressed to soup and rice. I am feeling much better, and Dr Laird has told me that I will likely be back to full-speed and totally normal very soon.

i have opted out of racing Xterra (for obvious reasons), and am spending a few down-time days here in Kona. I'll be home on Friday morning, and will be back in the swing of things soon enough.

race report to follow!

Aloha once again! I'm still here in Hawaii, but this time the race is behind me. It's been a couple days since the race, and I have every intention of posting a full play-by-play here and on my website very soon. Before I muster up the energy to do that, I am here to let everyone know that I am ok now, and that I appreciate all of your support throughout!

Michael

Good evening... Amanda and I are nearing the end of a very nice day. We got an early start with a nice swim in the ocean. The weather was gorgeous today, and the sea was calm and clear. Next up was a trip to see our master mechanic friend, Andy Burger King Cicero. I had some issues with the shifting, so I left him to dial it all in.

The day was pretty relaxed from that point on: napping, eating, visiting with friends, and now a nice dinner at Lava Java, while watching a beautiful sunset.

I'll try to check in again soon, and perhaps there will be some exciting news to report at that time.

Unitl then...

Hello again! I just thought I'd pop in to give a quick update from the land of Aloha. Now that Amanda is here I might even be able to upload some pics for a visual boost... not promising anything, but I'll try.

Today was a fun day, as the Woods and I went up to Hawi to do a nice run and ride. Boy, it was windy! We had a great time, laughing, chatting, snacking, and even squeezed in some training. That was about it for the morning.

The most comical moment of the day came when I picked Amanda up from the airport, and we tried to give Kris (massage therapist extraordinaire!) a lift. After jamming one bike box, one massage table, two big bags and three people into our COVERTIBLE, we were off: like a herd of sardines. It was fun while it lasted, but then we pawned her off on Scott and his BigBad van!

That's about it for now, as I must head off for the dinner and bed!

Until next time...

Aloha, and greetings from Hawaii! I have arrived and finally found my way to Lava Java, and therefore, to their intenet connection. I am very happy to be here, and I must say, it is hard to believe that a whole year has passed, and it's already Ironman time! It sure went by quickly!

I'm very excited to be here, and Amanda arrives tomorrow. Next week I have a whole crew of family support arriving on the scene as well. Tue: my siser, Stephanie; Wed: my stepfather, Mike; and Thu: my mother, her Bob, and Hays, my sister's man! It's going to be a regular reunion!

Until then, I am trying to fall into a regular routine of taking it easy. I awoke this morning very early (at 5:00am), and within an hour I was doing a short run on Ali'i drive. After breakfast I assembled the fastest machine known to man (or at least to triathlete): my Javelin Barolo.

I later pedaled down to the pier to do a short 30min swim, followed by a delicious Jamba Juice with my good friends, Scott and Kathleen Wood. K is racing, S is here to be spectator extraoridinaire.

I followed that up with a nice, easy spin out to the airport. It's pretty calm today, and even a bit cool now (thanks to the showers that just rolled in!).

Since my "training" was done by noon, I've pretty much been lounging the rest of the day away. I must admit that sitting here oceanside, with a cool breeze, tapping on the new iBook, has been fun.

I'm off to the grocery store, again! And I'll check in soon.

Thanks for reading!

Thanks to those of you who are tuning in after receiving my email. And to those of you who are getting the email more than once, again, I apologize. I'm still trying to sort out my group lists! I'll happily remove or add anyone you might suggest. Please feel free to email me.

In the midst of my taper, I'm feeling good. However, a lighter training volume does not mean no training volume... therefore, I must go out for a quick run!

Until next time.

Welcome to my blog... after first hearing about blogs, I thought it might be something I could enjoy using. However, it seemed like it would be too much work to get it started. Lo and behold, I was wrong! I returned home one day to find that Amanda had already set one up for me! Way to go, my computer-literate wife!

Please check in soon, as I will be attempting to update on my daily progress toward racing Hawaii Ironman on October 15th.