Author: davecriswell

My son and I volunteered at Ironman Lake Placid last year and we’ll be doing so again this year. My plan is to sign up for Ironman Lake Placid ’09 while I am there.

If you have never been to an Ironman event, I HIGHLY recommend doing so, and it is especially worthwhile to do as a volunteer. The energy, excitement, joy and pain is unlike anything you will ever experience.

I’ve included an e-mail I received from the captain of the Boathouse Aid Station who is looking for help in Lake Placid this year.

Hi Folks,

Well, it’s past time…again. Interesting, as I look back at least years message we’re actually a day or two earlier. If you’ve volunteered for us before or been solicited to volunteer, we apologize if the message below sounds vaguely familiar (we’re hoping that most folks have a memory half-life of less than a year like Jeff’s so it’ll all seem new to you! ; ) ), but for expediency’s sake it helps us to send a message that seems to cover all the bases in past years.

We are once again looking for enthusiastic and fun folks who are interested in volunteering some of their time and effort at an Aid Station on the run portion of the 10th Lake Placid IronMan, Sunday 20 July 2007. It’s a fun time and incredible watching these folks grind out 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking and 26.2 miles of running….all in one day !

We have again been assigned to the aid station that runners will go through in the Village of Lake Placid before they head out for their second loop and again just before they finish. It’s near (but not at!) the Boathouse Restaurant on the far side of Mirror Lake and therefore is called the “Boathouse” aid station.

Jobs at the station generally include prepping drinks and food, handing out drinks and food, passing out sponges, etc.; clean-up (constant throughout the day); set-up and take down. We will be set up on one side of the road with tables for drinks and snacks for the competitors. The most important thing that we hand out is a good positive spirit! The runners just show so much appreciation and it’s so inspiring to see them out there doing it ! You just can’t help coming away from it with a great experience ! It’s a great experience for kids too !

Lunch is paid for by IM, and all volunteers receive a T-Shirt.

There is a contest from aid station to aid station based on the theme of the aid station (decorations, costumes, music, etc.). The IM organizers are always looking for innovative and interesting new ideas (beach themes, Hawaii themes, tropical themes etc. are tired and old). We’re looking for a volunteer volunteer (get it?) who is interested in heading up a little sub-committee to choose a station theme and make that theme happen…anyone interested? Wanda? Also let us know if you’d like to work with whoever heads up that sub-committee.

For those of you who have done this before (last year or previousyears) we’d also really appreciate feedback on how we can run the station better, so that volunteers can have a more enjoyable time while still serving the athletes. IronmanUSA has developed a new online registration application that will help coordinate the volunteer portion of the 2008 event for them. If you are interested in volunteering, please go to http://www.ironmanusa.com/ open the Volunteer link and register. Note: Although you will be required to enter 3 volunteer choices whenregistering, please be sure to enter Boathouse as your first choice.

All we need directly from you is your preferred volunteer time. All shifts are available right now. We will begin at 12:00 p.m. again this year, last year seemed to work just about right prep-wise. The work progresses thru the day until midnight when the race officially closes (our aid station is very close to the finish and so must stay open until just about the close of the race). Shifts are 4 hours long…you are welcome to work more than 4 hours (the longer you can stay the more help it’ll be! Some folks stay all day!), but we need at least that long to fully staff the station. Please send usyour preferred shift(s).

Thanks for considering it! It’s going to be a great time! And if you know anybody else who might be interested in this, please feel free to forward this e-mail along. Cheers !

Janet & Jeff Herter and John Firlings

I don’t think I can count the number of times on more than one hand where I’ve run this winter and it has been above freezing. Today was one of those days, it’s about time, it’s April!

It was only four miles but it felt good to not have several layers on and not have to wait for 15 or 20 minutes before I actually felt comfortable. Suzan had me include 8 pickups for 15 seconds each, which when I read it on the training plan never sounds like much, but it helps to break up the run and I definitely feel just a little more run down after adding those in.

Tonight I have Master’s swimming which I’m looking forward to. I’ve spent more time in the pool over the past few weeks than I did over most of the winter and I can feel my swim form coming back together. Suzan gave me some tips in late February and right afterwards I felt like I was learning to swim all over again but I now feel stronger in the water with the revised stroke.

I’ve been having trouble figuring out my diet on the days when there are two or three sessions. I’m always good in the AM but it’s trying to find the right combination for lunch and mid-afternoon meal that has me struggling some days. I suppose if I had more time in the morning I could bring in to work something that would give me more energy in the afternoon. However, I’ve been taking the easy route and bringing in a Clif Bar and Banana. Ideally I should probably start brining in some brown rice and veggies.

Overall I’m happy with the nutrition. My caloric intake has been where I want it though I struggle some days to get my carb count up to where it should be. I guess I need to start eating more cookies!

Last week I hit a bump in the road with my training. Some avoidable, some not.

I was able to get two tickets to the Celtics game last Monday night which I brought my son to. Even though they lost we had a great time. As my son said, “it was good father-son bonding time”. On the way home, it was 11 PM on Route 1 and traffic came to a standstill. We moved about 1 mile in 45 minutes because the Mass. DOT decided to close all but one lane to do some kind of construction. The result – we got home at 1 AM, on a school night. My Tuesday morning was shot but I was able to make it to Masters swimming that night. This was the avoidable bump, we didn’t need to go to the game.

The unavoidable really made it a tough week. At about 1 AM our home phone rang, never a good thing. It was my Mom (who lives 2 miles away), she wasn’t feeling well. She had been dizzy since 10:30 the night before and was nauseaus. She was really pale when I got to her house so I ended up bringing her to the ER. Everything is good now, turned out to be an inner ear infection that was causing vertigo. I walked back in the door around 4:30 AM on Wednesday, so needless to say my Wednesday workouts were shot.

I was able to get some training in on Thursday but not Friday. Saturday I was on the trainer (again!) for two hours and hit the UNH pool for a swim afterwards. Sunday was a one hour run and one hour swim.

All in all I was OK with the hours I got in given the bumps but as I build up for the summer racing season, I don’t want to have too many weeks like the last one.

I had a workout on the schedule that specified using my tri bike this week. Up to this point I had my road bike hooked up to the trainer. My road bike is a decent one, it is a Trek 2000 that I’ve had for about four or five years. I’ve had it fitted by Fitwerx in VT and other than the drivetrain (currently Shimano 105) needing to be replaced (there is about 3,000 miles on it) it is still a good solid bike. It has some sentimental value as it is the bike I used for my first tri, my first century and my first half ironman.

However, two years ago I was fortunate enough to get a custom built Serotta CXII (roman numerals for 112, the bike mileage in an ironman), a bike with tri-specfic geometry. I got this bike the year I did Ironman Lake Placid. So, I spent many, many hours on this bike prepping for that race. Last year I didn’t do a lot of winter work on the trainer so as soon as it was nice enough I was out on my Serotta and didn’t ride the Trek much. This year my winter training was much more regular and I used my Trek just to keep the mileage off the Serotta since I was just building my aerobic base up.

So, when I got back on the Serotta after several months of using my Trek it made me realize how much I love the Serotta and what a difference a custom bike makes.

Today was a long training session with the club at the Gunstock Inn. Coincidentally I got a bunch of free ski tickets for Gunstock from a promotion the dealership I just bought a car from and my wife & son were able to ski while I was training.

We started the training session with a 2500 yard swim. It was great to get some stroke feedback from my coach while I was there. She could see some progress from the last time I was at one of the coached trainings. I finally have stopped crossing the mid-point of my body. Next on the fix list is to work on my rotation and hand exit.

After swimming we did a core workout in the weight room. I haven’t been as consistent on my core workouts as I’d like so it felt good to get that in.

Next on the agenda was a 1 hour run with the club plus an additional 30 minutes on my own. I finished my core workout early with a couple of others so we left for a run early. One of the guys I ran with is new to the club this year and has lost 75 pounds over the past 2 years! He’s doing his first triathlon this year. I love stories like that. They help to put struggles that I may perceive as too hard into perspective. Losing another 10-15 pounds before the first tri of the year now doesn’t seem like that big a deal.

So, after I ran for a 1/2 hour with the first group, the rest of the club was ready to go. This was a great run also. I was able to run with my coach for the entire run. She’s a great coach and a great person so we had some good conversation while we ran. Once we got back I still had another 15 minutes to get in so I went out solo for the rest.

I came over to Gunstock to get the family and they were just eating lunch when I got there. They weren’t done skiing yet so here I am in the lodge writing in my blog in between my son calling me on the new two way radios he got for his birthday yesterday. Thankfully there is wireless which helps pass the time a little quicker.

Random thought – when is the last time you heard Billy Squire’s Stroke Me, it just played in the Gunstock lodge?!

As a result of the birthday party yesterday and visiting friends I didn’t get my 1 hour 45 minute ride in, so tomorrow it will be an early morning to fit the ride and a leg workout in.