A One Handed Blog

My Ironman training kicked off in earnest this week and I’ve been getting back in the pool and back on the bike.

My coach, Paul Kinney, has me working out 8 times a week…8 I hear you say, but there’s only 7 days in a week. Well, on Tuesdays & Thursdays I swim at 5:30 am, go to the office and then I’m supposed to be lifting weights or running in the evening…10 months to go and counting!

Whilst I was swimming this week, Coach Mike had his Flip camera and kindly videoed me in the pool, so now you can see what it’s like to swim one handed…definitely need to pick up the pace a bit if I’m going to make that 2.4 mile swim in under 2 hours.

Despite my accident cutting my training short with two weeks to go before my first Half Ironman in October I’m determined to stick to my original plan, and with bones healed, start my bid to compete at the Ironman World Championship in Kona this October. That’s 140.6 miles and likely 16 hours of hard slog.

An Ironman triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike and finally a full marathon, 26.2 miles…all in one day. And the mecca for Ironman events is the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii…birth place of Ironman. Since I’m unlikely to qualify for Kona as a world class athlete, I’ve instead submitted an entry into the Ironman lottery as a challenged athlete. They pick 5 athletes from those that apply, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

This will be the biggest physical/mental challenge I have faced to date, without a doubt. I have 10 months of training ahead, 6 days a week for the next 42 weeks. In between I’ll be throwing in an Olympic triathlon or two, a Half Ironman event, a triathlon including a swim from Alcatraz and maybe a half marathon for good measure.

As part of my bid I plan to fundraise for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), these guys have a mission to provide opportunities and support to people with physical disabilities so they can pursue active lifestyles through physical fitness and competitive athletics, they provide support for athletic endeavors by providing grants for training, competition and equipment needs. As you can imagine, a cause near and dear to my heart.

So here goes, day one of training done, my first swim since my accident, nice to know it hasn’t affected my swimming ability, next will be to see how I fair on the bike…wish me luck.

I’ve been recovering fast after my surgery a few weeks back. It’s been a real case of deja-vu, it was like losing my hand all over again. Since my arm had swollen too nearly twice it’s size after the surgery (much better now) I couldn’t wear my prosthetic, so it was back to making do with one hand again. It was surprising how used to my i-Limb hand I was…I really miss it!

The surgery was successful, if a little long (over 5 hrs). My collar bone now has a plate holding it together, which is great since it stabilizes the shoulder nicely. My elbow was a bit of a surprise, however. I didn’t expect to end up with so much metal work: a plate, screws, pins and even some wire, as you can see from the fluoroscope images. It’s amazing the amount of damage I did.

Now that my arm is back to normal size my one challenge is that, with all the metal work in my elbow its circumference has increased and my prosthetic sockets still don’t fit. Fortunately I still have my original socket from a couple of years back, and whilst it’s not ideal, at least it fits…which means I can drive again.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t have to get new prosthetic sockets made, only time will tell.

As many of you know I’ve been training for the last 5 months for my first half Ironman triathlon, Big Kahuna in Santa Cruz. Unfortunately on Saturday my training came to a crashing halt, quite literally.

A group of us training for Big K (as the race is affectionately known) had gone down to Santa Cruz to train on the course in preparation for the race in 2 weeks. We were doing an hour and a half cycle out and back on Highway 1. It was on the way back that things went pear shaped.

There is a section of Highway 1, just after the crest of a hill, where an old rail track crosses the road diagonally. I remembered riding over it on the way out and it was a little knarly on my race bike with its razor blades for tires. On the way back it caught me a bit by surprise, you don’t see it until you crest the hill, and a thought went through my mind, “hope my wheel doesn’t get caught in the track”. Which, as you can guess, is exactly what happened, just as I picking up speed and going 15-20 mph. The next thing I know I’m down hard on my left hand side skidding along the road on my helmet and left arm…and then Ray hit me, he’d been riding just behind me and didn’t have time to take evasive action. So both of us were down in the middle of Highway 1…I guess we should count ourselves lucky there weren’t any cars behind us.

If anyone needed a reason to wear a helmet when riding here it is, my old Specialized helmet took the brunt of the impact and I watched the road skid by as it protected my head and face from major trauma, I’m serious when I say that without the helmet I would not be here writing this post!

Whilst my helmet fortunately saved my head, my left elbow and shoulder didn’t fair so well. As I fell to the left my elbow impacted the road hard, I had been on my aero bars and it happened so quickly I didn’t have time to react at all. My elbow fractured and the force of the impact fractured my clavical (collar bone) as well. After I managed to sit up and catch my breath I could feel my collar bone was broken (didn’t know about my elbow at that point) and got my team mates, who had arrived at the scene, to call for an ambulance.

I don’t know how, but a policeman was there in only 5 minutes or so, even before we called for an ambulance. He was taking my details and then asked whether I’d seen the sign warning cyclists to slow down and walk their bikes across the tracks…duh, missed those on the way out and on the way back! Me thinks they need bigger signs, flashing neon ones perhaps. Apparently they have about 30 bike accidents at that spot each year, given the tracks aren’t in use any more you wonder why they don’t fill the damn things in, anyone know a good lawyer…

So now I’m out of the race and due to the severity of the breaks I’ll be going in for surgery on both my shoulder and elbow. One thing you can say about me is, if I have an accident, then I *really* have an accident!

I’ll keep you updated on my progress after the surgery, I’m sure it’ll be a few months before I’m back in the saddle again, as Arnie says, “I’ll be back”.

Oh, and the bike, that’s in pretty good shape, luckily my body saved it from any major damage…seriously, it hardly has a scratch on it!

My half Ironman Triathlon is coming up fast on October 25th! Yesterday's training schedule called for a long bike ride, 56 miles, in preparation. Since I was up in Tahoe for the weekend I figured what better place to ride than around the lake.

The ring around Lake Tahoe is about 73 miles, I planned on riding 56 miles and having Kerry come pick me up, which meant I would get to go around 2/3rds of the lake at least.

I headed out at 8:30am on Highway 89, from South Lake Tahoe, and headed clockwise towards Emerald Bay, the first big climb. As I would learn during the ride, it sure ain't flat up here. The lake is at 6,200' and the roads around are continually going up and down, the highest climb to over 7,000'. Of course by going clockwise I got to ride the hilliest 2/3rds of the lake (great choice)!

Apart from the cold (what else would you expect in October, I couldn't feel my toes numerous times), and the wind which was blowing 20+mph and at nearly blowing me of the bike, it was a beautiful ride. It took me 3 hours 45 minutes to complete my distance, finishing just before Cave Rock (the tunnel on Highway 50). Kerry meet me there, with a hot cup of tea and my run shoes ready for a quick 10 minute transition run.

All-in-all a great days training and given the snow we got Saturday night/Sunday morning I'm sure glad I did the bike yesterday…although the snow sure looks pretty.

As if an Olympic distance triathlon wasn’t enough I now have my sights set on completing a Half Ironman later this year, that’s 70.3 miles total race distance.

Crazy? Perhaps, but that’s what life is about. Plus, you heard it hear first, next year I have my sights set on competing in the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii…that’s 140.6 miles, now that’s crazy!

But, one step at a time. I’m volunteering again with Team In Training to help others realize their dream of completing an endurance event whilst raising money for LLS to fight blood cancers. This time I’m training for Big Kahuna, held this October in Santa Cruz (nice and local).

This is a big step up for me, a Half Ironman consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike followed by a 13.1 mile half marathon. Last season I remember completing a 56 mile bike ride just by itself, followed by a 10 minute transition run, I literally could not run…I got shin splints so bad I could barely walk. So this is going to be a big step up for me.

If you’d like to support my cause and make a donation to help me achieve my goal of raising $1,980 for LLS that would be greatly appreciated, no amount too small (or too big), you can donate online via my fundraising page.

And, in case you’re wondering what I’m trying to do in the photo above, it’s my attempt at swimming butterfly…badly!

 March 29th 2009, Kona, Hawaii…Lavaman had arrived, it was time to race!

Kerry and I arrived in Hawaii with the TNT crew on the Friday and settled into our hotel and picked up our bikes. On Saturday it was an early start to see Dave Scott (6 time Ironman World Champion) provide some sagely advice for race day, then off for a practice swim, bike and run.

And then it was Sunday, up at 5:00am, quick bite to eat and cup of tea and then off to the hotel lobby for the 5:45am meet up. From there we all headed down to the transition area to setup our kit, get marked with our race numbers and pickup our timing chips.

At 7:00am everyone gathered at the start, or went for a warm up swim, come 7:15am the tension was building as the first wave of pros got ready to go at 7:30am, 3 minutes after that I'd be off and after 9 minutes Kerry would be following.

7:33am and I the race was on, 7:34am and my right arm was dislocated…as I reached forward with my hand someone must have been kicking backwards and kicked my shoulder out of its socket. So there I am, no left hand, can't use my right arm, just kicking to stay afloat. I waved my stump at the safety support dude on his surf board, unfortunately since all I could wave was my stump he just stood on his board staring at me blankly. So I had to kick myself over to him, rest my head on his board, relax my shoulder and pop it back in, then on with the race! All-in-all it probably cost me 2 minutes, but at least I wasn't out of the race.

Since I'm slower than most on the swim and the subsequent waves started only 3 minutes apart I had the pleasure of having the next 3 waves catch up with me and literally swim over the top of me…even the women, man they don't take prisoners!

45 minutes later and the swim was over. A short jog up the beach to the transition area and it was time for the 40km bike ride along Queen K (the main road of Ironman course fame). Despite my slow time on the swim I was able to make up time on the bike, passing many people during the ride. The last 6 miles or so were into a 15-20mph headwind, even though I was going down hill it was like peddling up hill! I was glad to be heading back to the transition area after about a 1 hr 30 mins ride.

Last leg left, 10km run…definitely not my favorite part. The first 1/2 mile of the run was across a lava field, uphill and into the headwind, what a start. At several points during the run I was heading uphill into that same headwind and the last mile or so of the course was along a single track path through lava fields, coral and finally a sandy beach.

I have to admit, I had to walk parts of the course, a combination of the heat and wind just wore me out, but I was determined to finish and just over an hour later the finish line was in sight. My total time was 3 hours 21 minutes, a few minutes faster than my tri at Pacific Grove, which considering the conditions wasn't too bad really.

The fun part was yet to come though, I had no idea, but, as we watched the awards ceremony I heard my own name, I wondered what on earth was going on…apparently I was first in my class, so I got to stand up on the podium and accept my prize in front of all these great triathletes. It was a bit lonely up there mind you, since I was actually the only one in my class, but hell I'll take all the awards I can get.

You can see more photos here.

Another day in the life of a triathlete, today was our first open water swim of the season at Aquatic Park in San Francisco and the water was a balmy 48F (9C), what a joy! Despite the chilly water we still had a great turnout by the team, all in their shiny new wetsuits.

I must say, it was a beautiful day once the sun came out, considering it's winter we've been very lucky with the weather.

After our swim we then headed out for a 40 minute run up to Crissy Fields and back, probably about 3 or so miles. After the swim my feet were so cold that when I started my run they felt like wooden blocks, I just couldn't feel them. The things we do, eh!

So far we've raised over $1,000 towards our $5,880 goal, thank you to all those that have been so generous in these tough times. If you'd like to make a donation it would be greatly appreciated, it's easy to do online: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/lavatri09/kezandkeiron

To quote Britney Spears, one of the great bards of our time (not!)…well, Kerry and I have signed up for another triathlon, Lavaman, in Kona Hawaii, on March 29th, 2009. It's an olympic distance race again (swim 1.5km, bike 40km, run 10km) and the course is partly on the Ironman World Championship course, which should be a great experience since I'm toying with the idea of doing an Ironman triathlon in 2010 (that's about 4 times the distances of an olympic event).

We're raising funds again for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) through Team In Training and this season we have also volunteered as staff to help everyone else achieve their dreams. We actually started training back in November and training through the winter is a bit different from training during the summer, not nearly as enjoyable. As you can see from the photo, riding in the rain is just one of the many pleasures.

Admittedly we've been a bit lax on the training so far, but, with the new year we'll have to kick things up a notch as we have less than 3 months until race day!

I'll keep everyone posted of my progress and if you'd like to make a donation to help us reach our $5,880 goal that would be very much appreciated, this time Kerry and I are fundraising together. You can donate via our fundraising page:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/lavatri09/kezandkeiron

Happy New Year everyone and best wishes for 2009.