The greatest thing you can do with your life,
is live it.
James Kelly
Ahhh, the holidays. Funny how a few weeks in a warm place can change your state of mind. Especially when you spend a number of your training months double layered to keep out the cold. I don't care if you're in Hawaii or in the Baja Mexico, there is something about running in your shorts beside the ocean that just makes it easier.
This is the time I use to get my sorry butt in gear for the season coming up. Usually after our annual trip to Ironman Canada I take a few weeks off. If I am feeling particularily lazy, more than a few. So for me to get going again I need some motivation. Like temperatures in the 70's. I just feel more like getting out there and getting it going. I think from now on when I need a break I'm just going to take one and let the chips fall where they may.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
Leg Up
Reach down and give someone a hand up.
A small thing with great impact.
James Kelly
The last couple of years I have struggled with a nagging hamstring tightness that I just could not seem to shake. Running on the flats was no problem, but in my neck of the woods there are very few runs that are flat. Every hill with any kind of a grade gave me great difficulty. The left hamstring would protest at even the shortest of climbs. I ran this way for a long time thinking that I was just getting old and I would just have to make the best of it. Finally, the tightness in the hamstring moved into my lower back and made it hard to even sit in the car for any length of time.
I have had the back thing before, a trick hip that likes to go out at any given time. I did my usual thing in that case, off to the chiropractor. One look and he just shook his head. "How long have you been walking around like that" he asked me. I didn't have to answer, he had my records. I hadn't been in to see him for five years.
Hey, snap, crackle, pop, guess what I don't have any more. No, not the pain in my back, it's the pain in my ham that's gone.
As seasoned athletes I think we sometimes have the idea that we can work through the pain or the injury. Trust me, give yourself a leg up and the second you think something is wrong, go see someone who really knows what it is.
A small thing with great impact.
James Kelly
The last couple of years I have struggled with a nagging hamstring tightness that I just could not seem to shake. Running on the flats was no problem, but in my neck of the woods there are very few runs that are flat. Every hill with any kind of a grade gave me great difficulty. The left hamstring would protest at even the shortest of climbs. I ran this way for a long time thinking that I was just getting old and I would just have to make the best of it. Finally, the tightness in the hamstring moved into my lower back and made it hard to even sit in the car for any length of time.
I have had the back thing before, a trick hip that likes to go out at any given time. I did my usual thing in that case, off to the chiropractor. One look and he just shook his head. "How long have you been walking around like that" he asked me. I didn't have to answer, he had my records. I hadn't been in to see him for five years.
Hey, snap, crackle, pop, guess what I don't have any more. No, not the pain in my back, it's the pain in my ham that's gone.
As seasoned athletes I think we sometimes have the idea that we can work through the pain or the injury. Trust me, give yourself a leg up and the second you think something is wrong, go see someone who really knows what it is.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Downhill Scares
The road behind me holds great memories
The road ahead, anticipation of the adventure
And where I stand right now is exactly where I want to be
James Kelly
I have never been one to hold back on a downhill. Man, I rode up here so I'm riding down. Funny how you always feel like you're the fastest at these times and you are always surprised when someone comes ripping past you on the down.
This year I put a small, but high quality helmet camera on and went for a ride. At the end of this ride there is a 14% grade hill. Now for those of you that have never seen this kind of hill, it's the one that can get you up to 80km an hour in a wink. Let me tell you when I look at the video of the downside of that hill, I don't know if it's the sound of the wind, which sounds like a jet aircraft, or just how fast the trees are flying by that almost scared me. I say almost, because anyone going over 80km an hour on a peddle bike better be a little scared or they are going to be a lot road rashed.
Last year on the downhill side of Yellow Lakes at Ironman Canada, the guy in front of me got speed wobble. Trust me, I was praying for the guy, 'cause if he went, I was going too. He hung on but I can still see that front wheel of his wobbling like mad, and hear him cursing like a banshee.
Well, there is always a little risk in anything you're riding. Your bike, the next big wave, even that heated seat in your new pick-up. You gotta be careful because the second you take your eyes of the prize someone will throw a hockey stick between the spokes.
The road ahead, anticipation of the adventure
And where I stand right now is exactly where I want to be
James Kelly
I have never been one to hold back on a downhill. Man, I rode up here so I'm riding down. Funny how you always feel like you're the fastest at these times and you are always surprised when someone comes ripping past you on the down.
This year I put a small, but high quality helmet camera on and went for a ride. At the end of this ride there is a 14% grade hill. Now for those of you that have never seen this kind of hill, it's the one that can get you up to 80km an hour in a wink. Let me tell you when I look at the video of the downside of that hill, I don't know if it's the sound of the wind, which sounds like a jet aircraft, or just how fast the trees are flying by that almost scared me. I say almost, because anyone going over 80km an hour on a peddle bike better be a little scared or they are going to be a lot road rashed.
Last year on the downhill side of Yellow Lakes at Ironman Canada, the guy in front of me got speed wobble. Trust me, I was praying for the guy, 'cause if he went, I was going too. He hung on but I can still see that front wheel of his wobbling like mad, and hear him cursing like a banshee.
Well, there is always a little risk in anything you're riding. Your bike, the next big wave, even that heated seat in your new pick-up. You gotta be careful because the second you take your eyes of the prize someone will throw a hockey stick between the spokes.
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