I Want to be an Ironman

I always hated watching sports or participating in them. In school I was always chosen last for any team and running more than a few yards was a nightmare: coughing, swearing, and side stitches.
In my 30's I started to grow heavier and rounder. At some point I learned that I had high cholesterol and in my early 40's I decided I should do something. I began swimming a couple of days per week. I always liked swimming, but never really done it to the point where you get out of breath.
I kept gaining weight. At some point I hooked up with my friend Bart from Sandia. He was training for triathlons. The swims became more frequent, and longer. That felt good physically, was a great way to work out aggression, but still didn't help me lose weight.
I was eating (and drinking) too much.
In the meantime Bart kept telling me how much fun it is to prepare and participate in these triathlons. I was smart enough to know that all of this involved physical pain, and I wasn't falling for his repeated attempts to sign me up for a local race. But, I did go and buy a bicycle.
I had a $130 ToysRus bike, but I felt an upgrade would motivate me to go out and use it. (The ToysRus one had cobwebs between the chain and the back wheel.)

My K2 Alturas 2

Nothing fancy, but lots of low gears and a cushy saddle ;-) The first time I rode it up a mile along Paseo, my thighs burned so badly that I could only limp for a few days!
After a while I got better at it. My heart rate monitor was telling me that sometimes I would burn between 500 and 600 kcal per hour. Most swims for me burn only about 350 kcal. My body is very efficient in not burning the calories I feed it.
Bart, a serious nut when it comes to sports, kept bugging me to start jogging and enter a race. In the Spring of 2006 I had gained 8 lbs due to traveling a lot, teaching at UNM, and not finding (or even trying) any time to exercise. So, I decided to see what would happen if I ran two miles. That's two thirds of a short (sprint) triathlon, and it did not kill me. It hurt for sure, but I had about a month left to train for the 2006 Socorro Chile Harvest Triathlon. I also learned that jogging, I can burn up to 900 kcal per hour.
Despite some setbacks and serious doubt, I did finish that race (400m swim, 12 mile bike, and a 5k run) in under and hour and a half. That's not a great time (the elite does this under an hour), but I was very happy to have finished it.
And, yes, I signed up for more and longer ones since then. What I realized was that there was always something more important, urgent, and fun than exercising. But, having signed up for a race makes you go out and train because you know that if you don't, you wont finish (the longer ones), and even if you do, it will hurt a whole lot.
Of course, the races hurt anyway, so the trick is to sign up for the next one before you have completed the current one. That way, when you limp towards the finish line and try to invent new swear words, you know you'll be back out training for the next one soon.
Over time I put about 3,500 miles onto the bike above. It is now my grocery and errands bike here in Dublin! I was able to get the one below on sale and have put almost 6,000 miles on it over the last three and a half years.

My 2007 Trek 2100

I thought I would go sooo much faster; but I didn't. It took weeks to get used to it and let my body adapt to the different geometry. I learned that I am a mediocre swimmer, a slow jogger, and an even slower bike rider.
But that's OK. I'm doing this to burn off fat. But it does bug me occasionally when every biker, including the ones with baskets on their handlebars, pases me and comments on the nice bike I have!
The ultimate in Triathlons is of course the original Ironman held in Hawaii each year. Over the years, Ironman races have proliferated and there are many to chose from, if you want to go swim 2.4 miles, bikes 112 miles, and run a marathon after that (26.2 miles). Why you would want to do such a thing is not quite clear to me. Bart showed me this video once that is supposed to illuminate the mindset:

That didn't really help, but despite that I decided at some point that I would like to try a full Ironman. Let it be close to my 50th birthday and in Switzerland (to give me an excuse to recover and vacation there afterward).
Now that I am training for the 2011 Zurich Ironman, I am questioning my sanity. In the last three years I have done five half Ironman events and finished four of them. Each one was very hard for me during training and the race itself, and because I am slow I reach the finish line by the time most people have already left.
Nevertheless, it is gratifying to finish one of these things. Especially for me who eschewed any unnecessary movement for the first forty years of my life.
At this time I feel better and am in better shape than anytime in my life before. My current self could run, swim, and bike circles around the person I was thirty years ago.

So, I'll do the Ironman in Zurich, hope to finish it (you get 16 hours to do it), and then retire from the sport. Because it is a pain in --- actually everywhere.
I signed up for it last Summer and prepared for it ever since. Switching continents and starting a new job did not help my training. Other travel, illness, and various injuries (I am not an athlete!) have interfered with my training schedule as well. I am making progress, but am somewhat behind with my long bike rides, and greatly behind in the speed I'm supposed to do these things in.
I have six more weeks to catch up a little, let my body recover, and be ready for July 10th. I'll keep you informed about my progress.

Planking and the End of the World

Have you heard of planking yet? It seems it originated in Australia and is now spreading around the world. I became aware of it through an article in a Swiss publication. Apparently, it is catching on there.

Planting example from the web

The idea is to lay face-down somewhere and have a picture taken. Some people get quite creative and it has even caused a death so far: a guy in Australia tried it on a balcony railing high above ground and lost his balance.
So, be careful!
On the other hand, it may not matter, since tomorrow is the beginning of the end of the world. According to Harold Camping from Family Radio, tomorrow will be the day when Jesus returns, graves will open up, true believers will be flown to Heaven, and the rest of us will start dying by the millions until October when God snuffs out the universe. This is all based on precise calculations based on facts revealed in the Bible.
I'll probably sleep in, but please let me know if I should change my plans for the afternoon ;-)

Me and the Queen

Okay, I admit it; I didn't actually talk to the Queen. I didn't really see her, either. But, she did disrupt my Thursday evening run.

Today's route

I was supposed to do a 16-miler today and picked phoenix park to do it. I had planed a nice route circling the park inside its perimeter, but the Queen prevented that. Well, actually it was the hundreds of Garda keeping vehicles out of the park and stopping people from getting too close to the royal route. I had to improvise a little and took the modified route above.
It was actually quite nice. A cool evening, unusually few people in the park, and no traffic. Just the Garda, the Queen, and me ;-)
The Queen is here this week as the first British monarch in a hundred years to visit the island. The last visit was before Ireland was an independent republic. Next week, Obama will drop by! According to a local, security for the Queen visit will be tighter than for Obama. Some old guard IRA promised to cause trouble for the British visit, while no one here objects to Obama visiting. For him, the Garda will be on the lookout for foreign trouble makers. By the time the figured out where he is, and where on the map Ireland is, Obama will have come and gone.

Humidity

In Albuquerque, after a shower, your towel will be dry again within a couple of hours.

Last night I took a shower after exercising. This morning, the towel was still damp!

When you ask an Irish person what their plans are for the Summer, they're likely to answer that it depends on whether it falls on a Sunday or not.

The Irish: A Mediterranean People

Irish Spring

When I prepared to come to Ireland I read that the island was first settled by Mediterranean people coming up the coast of Spain and France nearly 10'000 years ago. This appealed to me, for the Mediterraneans are known for their good taste in food and wine, and their relaxed attitude towards work. Less stress, and taking what is important in life more seriously than some type A personalty's demands at work, seemed perfect.
However, either my Swiss upbringing or the many years I spent in the USA, make it difficult for me to integrate here. Or, I'm just getting impatient in old age.
Things work well here. When you apply for a bank account, the people are friendly and tell you it will take three to five business days to become active. This is somewhat important, since it is the only way to get paid here.
After hearing nothing for two weeks I called. Patience. It's being processed. It took another few days for a confirmation and welcome letter to dribble in. A few more days for an ATM card, another two for the PIN, etc.
BTW the sheer number of new passwords, PINs, and account numbers you acquire in a short period of time when you settle in a new country is staggering. We are used to a lot of these already and don't even notice many of them anymore because our browsers or we ourselves remember the more frequently used ones, and we don't think about the lesser used ones, like the ones around tax season.
When you start a new job, and a new bank account, new health insurance, new electricity, home phone, cell phone, gas, and internet access companies, you amass a whole bunch of numbers and code words in a hurry! In addition to those you get another social security number, new airline and store memberships, and of course a bunch of magic numbers at work, from a new employee number to access codes, passwords, and various insurance numbers.
The delay in getting a bank account setup is not unique. I registered for health insurance provided by my employer. The application form went off into a void and I heard nothing until I started asking questions. After several referrals I reached a helpful persons who confirmed that I should receive an insurance card and some pamphlets on how to use the service. It all came in the mail two days later. Then, another day later, a second, identical set.
My fancy, tiny smart phone? I ordered it twice and had to reassure them over a land-line phone that I really wanted it, before it was sent out to me.

My super-cool, tiny smart phone

There is a pension plan at work and you can sign up to pay in a little extra each month to lower your taxes and increase the pension when you retire. I did that with the form provided. And heard nothing for two months. Just as I was trying to find out whom to email or call, I get a PIN in the mail that lets me access the web site where I can chose among investment options and see the status of my account. Setting that up takes two months?
It's the same at work. Larger monitor? No problem, takes three weeks. A machine to work from home. Sure. Two months.
After enough emails and phone calls, and once things are setup, they seem to work reasonably well.
Except for my electricity company which still sends me alternating letters welcoming me as a new customer, but also telling me that I have outstanding bills from before I arrived in Ireland. Oh, they also provide gas to my apartment. Nowhere, anywhere, has anything been mentioned about that. The web site says I have not consumed any and the outstanding balance is zero. I'm looking forward to a week's worth of eating out while we sort out who should supply gas to the apartment, who should pay for it, and who owes whom how much for the interim period ;-)

Pollaphuca reservoir in the background

Fires and trash

I'm starting to fall behind in my bloggin "duties"; time to catch up ;-)
A couple of weeks ago I rode my bike into the Wicklow mountains to Lough Tay, which is refered to by the locals as "Guinness Lake". can you see why?

Guinness Lake

Supposedly there is a mansion there, owned by the Guinness brewing company, where the owners host lavish parties. I wasn't invited, and the sign at the gate said something about me (and other uninvited guests) not being welcome...
That may still be better than what awaits dogs who worry the sheep:

That's a sign I came across on my way up toward Lough Tay. Finally we know what sheep do when they cannot sleep!
On my ride up, I saw a fire in the distance.

A fire in the Wicklow mountains

When I came back, it had grown (it was windy that day):

Later that day

Then I noticed a fire much closer:

A fire on the side of the road I was traveling on

Despite Ireland being know for its "greeness" and the rain, in recent months there hasn't been enough of it and many areas are quite dry.
There is "stuff" called peat that people dig up during the Summer, let dry, and then use in the Winter for heating fuel. The area I traveled through has many of these peat bogs, and I think this is what they look like:

Maybe that's the stuff that's been burning. As you can see this ride was quite pretty and interesting:

 

Isn't it pretty?

Going through a forest

Near Lough Tay

There was some traffic on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't too bad. On these narrow roads cars slow down considerably crossing each other. When they approach me, you would think I have plenty of room, the width of a car, but somehow oncoming traffic doesn't manage to move to the right as far as they do when a car is approaching them. Other than that, drivers here are generally friendly toward bicyclists.
When I got to Lough Tay, I took a few pictures. It's not quite as impressive as the satellite image because it is hard to get the whole lake into the picture without have some other hill or rocks in the way, obscuring the Guinness glass. Nevertheless, it is a pretty lake.

Lough Tay (Gunniess Lake)

On my way back, near the sign warning dogs not to worry the sheep, one of them (sheep), looking completely unworried, was standing in the middle of the road. When I approached, it wandered off. I guess they think about dogs a lot, but not bicycle riders.

An un-worried sheep in the distance

Still not worried, but it made room for me anyway

I usually try to take pretty or interesting pictures. While I was pedaling through this beautiful scenery I came across some trash.

Road-side trash

Unfortunately, this is not an unusual sight. It happens more often closer to the city, but even 20 miles away in the middle of nature, it occurs. What baffled me, and prompted me to show you this unpleasant side of Ireland is this:

Unbelievable! This is across the street from the sign below and near the road-side fire.

There is a fee for disposing of trash here, but it cannot be more than this pig paid in driving all the way up here and dumping a whole children's room on the side of the road. I cannot understand this.
Not quite this massive, but it is common to find litter on the side of the road. There are signs everywhere prohibiting it, and there is even a number to call when you observe it; kind of like calling in drunk drivers in Albuquerque. But I guess it is not working.

Dumping is not allowed. I don't know if the danger of the land refers to the wild fire in the back ground or something else. (Click on the image to zoom in and read the text.)

So, to cleanse the pallet, so to speak, here are a few more, more pleasant sights.

The highest point of my journey

It sure is green around here

A pub on my way back