From the road - getting around town

Tonight, I am staying in the Fairfield Inn and Suites in St. Charles, MO. The city of St. Charles seems quaint and nice but there's always the ugly side of the city. This other side of the city is home only to hotels, Cracker Barrel, and pavement. Trying to go for a run is nearly impossible when leaving from hotels on the other side. Typically, as is the case today, your only option is to run on the access road parallel to the interstate. Sure, you'll keep a good pace knowing that you have to be prepared to dive to the safety of some corporate lawn should a Ford pickup careen around the corner, but it's not very relaxing.

Today, I drove to Lindenwood University's campus to run. This proved to be a good idea but it left me a bit disappointed. Is there such low demand from pedestrians for basic accommodations (i.e. sidewalks)? It seems as though we have, as a nation, tacitly decided that we need cars, buses, or trains to get us from point A to point B, even if point A and B are a five minute walk apart.

Now that Laine has relearned how to ride a bike, we have been trying to make the transition from biking for fitness to biking for transportation. We spent Sunday morning and afternoon biking from place to place. We even biked out to Buffalo Wild Wings, which is on the "other" side of Bloomington-Normal mind you, to watch football. It seemed like an odd thing to do and it wasn't easy. We had to take back roads to avoid four lane traffic and all that comes with it (people lashing out with insults of all kinds (people really resent foot and bicycle traffic to an unhealthy degree)) to make it to Buffalo Wild Wings. I should point out that there was another bike chained up when we got there, so this is not an original idea, just rare.

I hope that we will move toward, instead of away from, urban planning that takes non-motorists into account. Although it was not very easy to get where we needed by bike, it was fun. We enjoyed the sunny fall weather and I feel like we added something to our day that had been missing. It's so easy to never go outside anymore and I'm realizing that we should make a conscious effort to get outdoors more in the future. Maybe one time I'll bring my bike with me when I travel. I'll lock it to a rocking chair when I eat at the Cracker Barrel.

From the road – speech to text

My new fancy phone - the HTC Incredible - has a feature where I can speak into the microphone and my words will be put into text and sent via text messaging. Last night I was leaving the hotel and driving to a college fair and I thought it would be a good time to send Laine a text. Since I was driving, the speech-to-text function made a lot of sense. I spoke into the microphone, "On my way to the college fair" but what the phone sent as a text message was "hey on my way to the college fair honey." I must have had the sweet husband feature on as well.

From the road - piercing

Well, I'm back on the road.  I had my first two high school visits this afternoon and will have my first college fair this evening. Since I'll be alone with my computer more than usual over the next couple months I am hoping to create more frequent blog posts. This first one will be quick, just to ensure that the bar is set low.

My very first high school visit of the 2010 - 2011 recruiting year was Edwardsville HS and the first two student hands I shook were abnormal. I didn't notice when I shook the girls' hands that anything was unusual but I overheard one girl comment to another about how anytime she shook someone's hand her hand hurt. I looked over and noticed that she was looking at her hand and the next thing I noticed was that she appeared to have a floating gem on her right ring finger. It turns out that it was a piercing. In her finger. It didn't go all the way through - it was simply a stud. Both girls had this piercing, as they explained, because they are best friends. Now I have never had a piercing but I am typically in favor of them. This one, however, struck me as a poor decision. I hope that this poor decision is a lesson to these girls and not the first of many poor decisions over the next few years.

I've posted a picture that I found online for those who can't quite picture what it is I saw.

Unscented

What's your favorite scent? Is it a certain fruit, like strawberry or melon? Is it a scene in nature such as summer mist? Or perhaps it's a something even less tangible, like morning clean.

One of my coworkers used to ask people what scent they would bottle and carry with her. I'm not sure how I would have responded if she surprised me with that question. There are certainly scents that I find pleasing but none that stand out heads and shoulders above the others.

And yet it seems important to have some sort of scent-identity. We are regularly asked to choose sides when it comes to scents. In buying kitchen cleaners, do you go with lemon or orange? Are you a fruit or nature person when it comes to body wash and candles? I won't even ask about bathroom aerosol sprays. I think we can all agree that anything is better than the alternative.

What I'm struck by is how rare it is to find a product that is 'unscented' and labeled as such. The first time I recall using an unscented project was when I borrowed my dad's Mitchum deodorant and it struck me immediately. Why would I choose to smell like something when I could instead smell like nothing? I had discovered that there are others out there who share my desire for smell neutrality.



I began seeking out unscented products but quickly came up short. Unscented is not an option for mainstream soaps or shampoos. You can certainly find an unscented candle but I have yet to lay eyes on an unscented cleaning product. Not long ago I was pleasantly surprised to notice an "Odor neutralizing" aerosol bathroom spray. Now we're talking.



In cleaning myself and my surroundings, I follow the "leave no trace" ideology. I don't want to leave a lingering scent, good or bad, when I exit a room. Rather if I do leave a scent, I don't want it to be my deodorant that lags behind. Earlier I posed the question of why you'd choose to smell like something when you could smell like nothing and I'd like to revisit that because I do see the value in smelling nice. Like all products for sale, there's an implication that if you don't buy the product you will be worse off. This is an especially compelling argument when it comes to scented items. Going out on a date? Are you sure that you smell good? No? Well you'd better make sure that you do! It's easy to see how scents came to dominate the marketplace. Smelling like nothing is okay, but are you certain that you really smell like nothing?!

It's nice to smell good and I realize this. I even own cologne. Cologne and perfume are exceptions because they serve the singular purpose of marking you with a scent. Unscented cologne is obviously ridiculous. That'd just be water. I can get on board with cologne and perfume but in order to do so, I have given up on all other scented items. Answer this: how can Polo cologne truly do its job when it has to compete with my 'chocolate mint'-scented hair, my 'morning clean'-scented armpits, and my 'honeydew'-scented body wash? It doesn't even stop there! Don't forget about 'fresh clean scent' clothing detergent and 'mountain'-scented dryer sheets. Even my clothes have competing smells!

It may seem that I am opposed to scents but the truth is that I am the only one who is giving scents a fair playing field on which to compete. If I could find unscented products for everything, I could allow my 'honeydew' body wash to own Mondays, my 'chocolate mint' hair to shine on Tuesdays, and so on and so forth. It would allow me to really find a scent that I can call my own instead of walking around like a scent medley all the time. While mixing all the fountain drink flavors into one cup can occasionally produce a successful concoction it can also be a recipe for disaster, leaving you wishing you hadn't been greedy and had just picked one flavor. Let's all just pick a flavor and go with it. I got dibs on 'fresh clean scent'.

Reflections: triathlons

Sometime over the past year or two I got it in my head that I would register for the 2011 Ironman Madison race. As you may know, I competed in this event in 2008 and had a great race. According to sources close to me (wife and parents) I didn't initially have aspirations to compete in the race again. It was a painful but satisfying race that would be hard to top.

I have enjoyed training for triathlons though and it was very hard for me to get the Ironman distance race out of my mind. For those of you unfamiliar, the Ironman distance race consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. It's the longest triathlon distance and the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii are televised on one of the big three networks annually. I remember watching the Ironman race when I was in junior high and thinking that is just insane. I have grown up competing in multisport races. One of my favorite pictures of me and my dad is from a Champaign newspaper and it's a shot of me (about 13?) and dad running side-by-side to the finish. I enjoyed running cross country in college and ran the Chicago Marathon a year after college graduation. I got back into triathlons when my co-worker Bob Geraty encouraged me to register for the world's largest triathlon in Chicago. It was an Olympic distance, which is a .9 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run. As I was training for this race, I met a couple in Bloomington who were competing in the Ironman race in Madison that year. I drove up to watch them compete and was sold. I signed up for the following year's race the next day.

Ironman training provided a framework for that next year. My weeks were planned around training and workouts. I would typically plan to workout 10-12 hours per week. These workouts would include long bike rides, long runs, lifting, swimming, etc. The training also dictated what and when I would eat. I learned a lot that year about nutrition and really enjoyed that aspect of training. I've known that I'm someone who enjoys having structure in my day and this training schedule provided that.

There were parts that I did not enjoy though. I didn't enjoy the three solo 100+ mile bike rides that summer or the 5:30 am swim workouts although they did leave me with a sense of accomplishment. It wasn't very hard to stay motivated though because I was confident that if I neglected to put in this work, I would not even complete the Ironman. This would obviously be very disappointing and it would also be embarrassing given that a large cheering section of family, friends, and coworkers was beginning to make plans to be there on race day.

When race day came around I felt ready and excited. Laine drove up to Madison a couple days early for registration, relaxation and preparation prior to the race and I don't think I would have made it through those days without her there to keep me calm. My cheering section was awesome and so was the weather. I enjoyed my time out on the course and really enjoyed seeing pictures later of my family, friends, and coworkers all hanging out together during the event. With a wedding on the way I was happy to see that my closest friends had a chance to meet one another before the main event. I felt as good as I would have expected on the run and really benefited from fan support there. I wasn't feeling so hot the last 10-15 miles but my spirits stayed lifted knowing that I had cheering sections all along the route. The finish was thrilling and I was pleased with my time. 12:34:00. As someone who can't remember any of my best times, I think it was fate that this one time couldn't be any easier to remember.

I wanted to recap that so that I could remember what a fantastic day that was. I'm realizing now that I don't really have any reason to do the Ironman again – at least not now. I had already set a goal to break 12:00:00 next time around but if that's the only reason for me to train I don't think this time around will be very satisfying. I've always been someone who lives within extremes and many of the things I'm most proud of accomplishing were made possible by this mentality. It never occurred to me not to become an Eagle Scout once I knew that was the highest rank. I couldn't pass up bungee jumping at the first commercial bungee site in New Zealand even though it scared the heck out of me to think about it. I joined a college friend on a trip to Iceland to attend one of the best festivals in the world. I caddied at Bandon Dunes (the caddie Mecca) and, while there, read the biggest books I could find: Gravity's Rainbow, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Don Quixote, The People's History of the United States, etc. While I'm not a competitive person, I do seem to have a tendency to think that bigger is better.

I'm beginning to realize that just because a challenge presents itself doesn't mean that you're required to take it on, at least not at that exact moment. While I still plan to stay in shape and compete in triathlons, I'm looking forward to finding a more sustainable middle ground.

Muncie

Last weekend, Laine and I drove out to Muncie, Indiana for our second triathlon of the year. We registered for this race because it has multiple distance options, so Laine signed up for the Sprint distance while I signed up for the "Endurathon" or 70.3 half-ironman distance. As a side note, this race is the longest running 70.3 race in the world. It's been going on for the past 30 years.

The race snuck up on us and neither of us had put much thought or planning into the weekend. I had booked a free night at a Fairfield way back when and realized on Friday when we were getting ready to leave that the Fairfield was in Indianapolis – about one hour from Muncie. "No big deal" I thought. It wasn't until we were in the car that I remembered that most of Indiana is in the Eastern time zone, meaning that we were going to need to go to bed an hour earlier than we planned and get up an hour earlier as well. The first wave of athletes went off at 7:00 am and my wave was at 7:15. I decided that I needed to be there by 6:30 am at the latest. Count back that hours and that meant a 4:40 am wakeup call – 3:40 am CST.

With the help of some pasta and Tylenol PM, we successfully went to bed at 9:00 am EST and awoke at 4:40 EST. I had just enough time to check my bike into transition, put on a wetsuit and get a good luck kiss from Laine. Her wave would get in the water at 8:30 am, so she had some time to kill.

My swim went pretty well and I saw Laine as I was getting out of the water and then again as I was heading out onto the bike course. By the time I got back from the 56 mile bike, I saw Laine cheering for me on my way into transition to the run – she had already completed her sprint distance triathlon! I forgot my gel in transition out to the 13.1 mile run which panicked me a bit. I was already a bit tired and worried that without some gel the run might feel even longer than it already was sure to be. I noticed some empty gel packets on the side of the road and had an idea. What if someone dropped a full gel packet as they were running? That lifted my spirits and I kept an eagle eye on the side of the road. Sure enough, within a couple minutes I spotted a gel packet that looked like its top hadn't been torn off. I skidded to a halt and grabbed it off the ground, earning a handful of confused looks from participants and spectators. It was worth it though – I had found the Holy Grail. A full Hammer Vanilla gel packet. This was a good sign. If only I could find another I'd be worry free. I must be living right because I found another about 200m down the road.

Armed with 260 calories of sugar I continued onto mile two with my head held high. By mile four my head began to drop. 13.1 miles is a really long way. I realized that I hadn't run that far in about two years. Oh well, I was in it to win it now. As the miles passed my attitude worsened. I thought "I can't possibly sign up for the Ironman again. This is ridiculous". I continued to shuffle through the out and back course and finished the run in 1:46:29 – 8:08 pace. Overall, my time was 5:18:33, which I think is as good as I could have hoped for. I told Laine multiple times that she might need to remind me not to sign up for the Ironman when we go to Madison to volunteer there this year. I'm already beginning to forget about the pain of Muncie…

VANITY PL8TS

About a month ago I received a suspicious envelop from my dear friend Jesse White who, apparently, is still the Secretary of All Things Vehicles. Has this guy been running uncontested for all these years or is he just that good at what he does? Well, we don't have time to delve deeper into that right now. What I want to discuss is the option to request "vanity" or "personalized" plates.

Vanity plates are the ones that often don't have any numbers and have little restriction. From what I can tell, you can put anything you'd like on your vanity plate with the only exception being offensive language. Personalized plates are the poor man's vanity plates. You can request something personalized but you still have to follow the rules, which include a set number of characters (minimum and maximum), at least one number but no more than three and these numbers must anchor the right side of the plate (no integrating numbers & letters and no numbers on the left side of the plate).

For some reason, I have been wanting to get personalized plates ever since I heard that they don't cost any more than renewing your plain old 341 8745 plates. When given the option between random numbers and letters that you can pick out it seemed like a clear choice to me. I had a few ideas right off the bat. One was IRNVAN 1, which is in reference to a shirt that my friend created for me when I competed in an Ironman distance triathlon. Personal, unique – I thought it fit the bill. I had always thought of incorporating 311 because it seemed like if I was going to be required to use numbers I might as well use it as an opportunity to reference one of my favorite bands. 311 takes up a lot of space though, which can be one of the true limiting factors in personalized plate design.

I thought I should give this some thought before putting in the request, so I came up with a list of other options. Some referenced a tie to my job (ADMIT 1, ACCEPT 1, etc.), others referenced Illinois Wesleyan (IWU 1850, IWU TY 10), and others were just random (TKERESY (take 'er easy – Big Lebowski quote), VMVMV 7 (crazy initials), FULL ON 5 (New Zealand saying), etc.).

I solicited help from people I know very well (i.e. family) and was surprised at the feedback. Most everyone seemed confused as to why I had any desire to request personalized plates: "I didn't think of you as the vanity-plate-type-of-guy" my sister admitted. It seemed to be what everyone was thinking. It the same type of reaction I'd expect to receive if I told them I was starting to hang out with the cast of Jersey Shore. It was as though everyone really thought of people with vanity/personalized plates as vain. I had always just thought of them as fun. It reminded me of when I dyed my hair blue in college and people asked me if I was okay. "Is something wrong? Why'd you dye your hair?" as if blue hair is the symbol of troubled youth. Maybe it is, but all I was thinking was, wouldn't it be cool to have blue hair?

I have such a wonderfully loving and encouraging family that they didn't stomp on my idea completely. They just warned me that I would be drawing attention to myself, whether I wanted it or not – just like the blue hair. I decided to table the thought for a bit and give it some thought. While driving around town, I would pay attention to personalized plates. Some of them I liked, some of them caused me to judge the person on the spot, while others I was indifferent to because I couldn't figure them out. What I realized was that I can't control people's reaction to my personalized plates. Some people might like them, some people might think I'm a total loser or think I'm vain. The risk/reward started to seem more and more tipped in the favor of risk. So, for now, I'm still good old 633 2458.