EverymanTri.com

The Truth Is Probably Somewhere In The Middle

Thanks to all of you for your great advice to my crazy race plan to do a half Ironman a week after a full Ironman.

Please keep this confidential: I have a simple race plan for Wisconsin ;-)

Go easy on the swim, go easier on the bike, and run the run.

On the bike keep the cadence high and wattage low.

I think that Madison is a race that rewards the turtle.

I plan to be the turtle and do all of my passing on the last 10K of the run...at least that's what I hope.

My nutrition is pretty set as well.

All I have to do is to remember to take my salt tablets, Cliff blocks, GU, and Nuun. I don't do well on protein drinks so I tend to stick to the tried and true PB & J on the bike.

Besides, I now I have another race to do next weekend so that should keep me from going too crazy in Madison.

Anyway, that's my goofy reasoning for doing the half IM a week after the full IM.

To finally rap things up with my little Chicago Triathlon drama, below is the recent email I got from head honcho at Capri Events, the company that puts on the Chicago Triathlon. I've also included my edited brief response for your reading enjoyment.

It was your email writing that got me in the door with him to argue my case. So I'm very grateful and thankful to all of you who took the time to read my side of the story and write a letter. As you can tell by my response the issue remains a very sore and open wound for me. As my friend Fred likes to say, "time wounds all heals."

Anyway, you guys are the best and I won't bore you with anymore needless Chicago drama and controversy.

The long road back to the Midwest is calling my name. I'm heading to Wisconsin today for part 2 of my three part race month. I hope to do you proud in Madison in the best sort of beer wagon pulling Clydesdale way.

Recent email Subject Heading from Capri Events: The Truth Is Probably Somewhere In The Middle

"Roman,

As the owner and producer of the Accenture Chicago Triathlon, it was my decision to include you in the awards. Having discussed your situation with both my staff and Mark Moore of Timberline, it is my belief, that you probably missed the weigh-in, but in your defense, it was not by choice, and you should not have been handed your packet before being fully processed. To avoid the possibility of this problem occurring in the future, we will be augmenting our procedures for signing in Clydesdale/Athena participants to include the following:

• Upon an athlete checking in, the race packet will be pulled and the race number removed from the packet.

• The athlete will weigh in, and the athlete's weight will be recorded on the back of the race number along with the signature of the recorder.

• The name of the athlete, race # and weight will also be recorded in a ledger.

• The race number will be returned to the packet and the packet given to the athlete.

• It will be the responsibility of the athlete to a) make sure that they weigh-in and b) their weight and the signature of the person distributing the packet is inscribed on the back of their race number.

Hopefully this will eliminate any like problems in the future. Hopefully, with the exception of this single issue, you found your overall race experience in Chicago a pleasure. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance regarding this or any other issue you may have with the `07 Accenture Chicago Triathlon.

Jan"

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your email.

But let’s get something straight.

I don’t lie.

I weighed in and followed all of your established protocols.

I waited in line for the big guy in front of me to weigh in. I stepped on the scale and was told by the women manning it that she would subtract two pounds for my clothes. I helped her find my name in the notebook she used, and watched her write in a weight. Perhaps she wrote it on the wrong part of the page...maybe she wrote it under somebody else’s name; I was not watching that closely. You may want to check the page with my name on it.

More importantly if you take a look at my Blog (www.everymantriahlon.com) and read a few entries you’ll see I’m always brutally honest with my readers. If I had not weighed in I would have admitted my mistake, apologized to you, and taken it as a well earned lesson.

But this was my third time racing, my third time picking up my packet, and my third time weighing in…so I knew the drill well.

While I may not be a professional athlete I take my integrity seriously.

Besides my Blog Im also part of a nation triathlon team that has now grown to over 500 triathletes.

www.raceAthlete.com

It was with this team that I sat and waited for the results to be announced at the very end of the awards ceremonies. We (the big boys among us) were already feeling a bit like we got the short end of the race stick since not only were the Clydesdales on the team the last individual wave to race, but we were also the last athletes to be announced.

In fact we had spent 4-hours waiting to race after the close of transition;

Waiting in massive lines for the few available bathrooms,

Waiting and watching while everybody else raced in the cool morning air,

Waiting as the bike course piled up with the derby of several thousand racers ahead of us,

Waiting for two hours for the awards ceremony while the pros, age-group athletes, challenges athletes, Athena’s and various announcements were made and everybody left,

BTW: Don’t they usually save the big awards for last so that people don’t leave? Isn’t that why during the Oscars they announce the best movie last?

And finally…waiting to not have my name announced.

So I hope you can see why I was a bit miffed.

I worked an entire year for this moment (last year I took second) only to walk away empty handed with a vague promise of future action. I suspect if I had been a pro this would have been handled much differently. And yet I’m sponsored like a pro, and probably have a larger following than most current professional triathletes.

I feel like I’ve now spent so much time and energy on something that could have been cleared up with a simple phone call or an email earlier in the week.

I appreciate your new procedures, but the truth is not somewhere in the middle. I weighed in, I raced, and I won…and somebody else walked away with my medal.

Kind Regards,

Roman Mica

How much will I suffer ?

OK, so I did something really stupid and now I want your opinion.

Flushed by my short course Clydesdale victory in Chicago, I registered for the Harvest Moon Half Ironman triathlon on on September 16 as it is the official long course Clydesdale & Athena National Championships.

That's not the really stupid part. The really really stupid part is the date. Keen (and perhaps even not so keen observers) will notice that the race is one week (that would be seven days) after Ironman Wisconsin.

To make matter worse I am once again driving my little electric car across the bread basket of America to get to the race in Madison.

That means I'll be cramped in a car for two long days and over 1000 miles after my third Ironman. Who knows it could be good for my legs to sit in a car for over 16-hours after an Ironman. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking with it for now.

So the question is a simple one; How much will I suffer during the Harvest Moon half Ironman race?

Please keep in mind that my only goal at Ironman Wisconsin is to run the run. In other words, run most of the marathon. But it is a marathon and conventional wisdom says that they do tend to tear you up a bit.

So on a scale of 1 to 10: One being almost no suffering (like watching an episode of Entourage on my comfy couch) to 10 being such excruciating pain (like watching twenty episodes of Desperate Housewives in a row while cleaning out the fish tank), how much will I suffer?

Please cast your votes below if you feel like giving me your 2 cents:

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Triahletes have big hearts

Now it is official, triathletes have big hearts.

Well at least Cyclist have bigger hearts because they were the ones recently studied.

From the Associate Press:

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Riding the grueling Tour de France bike race takes strength, stamina -- and perhaps a heart nearly 40 percent bigger than normal.

Researchers who examined the hearts of former Tour bikers found that the athletes' hearts were from 20 to 40 percent larger than average, said Dr. Francois Carre of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Rennes, France, speaking at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology.

The difference is attributable largely to rigorous training that expands the cyclists' hearts. But researchers have not yet determined whether the athletes' hearts were larger to begin with.

"They are a special breed," said Dr. Richard Becker, a professor of medicine at Duke University and spokesman for the American Heart Association. Becker was not connected to Carre's study.

Scientists have long noticed the phenomenon of the "athlete's heart." Athletes who train hard in aerobic sports, such as cycling, running or swimming, tend to have a bigger heart that pumps more blood throughout the body.

The heart's walls become thicker to be able to handle the increased blood volume. That gives the athletes an edge by increasing their oxygen levels and improving their endurance.

Carre's study, funded by the Brittany provincial government in France, is perhaps the first to track what happens to athletes' hearts when they stop training.

Medical tests done on all Tour de France cyclists before the race begins showed virtually all have enlarged hearts, Carre said.

"When you see an athlete's heart test, you know right away that it's not a normal person," he said.

In his study, Carre tracked seven former professional cyclists through their final year of competition and three years of retirement.

Once a year, the cyclists took tests to check the size and function of the heart. They were also tested on their fitness levels.

Carre found that the athletes' hearts shrank nearly a quarter in size after they finished riding professionally. Still, the cyclists remained in excellent physical condition.

But I know it as fact that this phenomenon certainly applies to triathletes as well.

Just take a look at what Triboomer is doing in Madison this weekend. He is carrying the names the of over 500 of cancer fighters, survivors and souls as he race over 144 miles.

And you guys certainly have huge hearts, from all of the encouraging emails and comments I've gotten from you over the last few weeks.

And all of the fine folks on team raceAthlete certainly have bigger hearts as so many are coming to Madison to volunteer and support the lucky few of us racing.

And all of the the thousands of others racing this weekend who are raising to raise money for the team in training, or the Blazeman Foundation, or the foundation fighting blindness, or the hundreds of other charities and causes that will be on display on Sunday.

So yes, this study is certainly true and proves what we already suspected...triathletes do have big hearts!

April Showers bring May flowers, but September...

It is looking like another wet and wild weekend in Madison for IM Wisconsin 2007.

Bring your rubbers...rubber bike booties that is ;-)