Newest Lance Armstrong Interweb Report

He Tweets, He blogs, He videoblogs. He breaks his collarbone and rides the next week, He pisses off the French. Yes, Lance Armstrong is a Superman.

Love him or hate him, here Lance Armstrong's latest video message to all of his virtual peeps:

Lance Video

Lance Armstrong Comments on Doing the Ironman Triathlon

This one cracks me up (you can click on the photo to see the full photo).

For the last couple of years I have been talking about Lance Armstrong doing an Ironman.  Clearly I am not the only one, and looks like the word has gotten back to him.  See the photo above for his thoughts on it at he was training in Kona for his latest comeback bid.  Yeah Lance, the joke's on us.

"What's with all this Ironman business... I'm ready. Actually I'm not. Toughest competitors around.."

He also talked about going back to triathlons in this article in Outside.  And his coach, Chris Carmichael, talked about it in the article Lance Armstrong: Training in Kona, Thinking of Ironman (with video) from Slowtwitch.

That will be fun to see.

BTW- This is Armstrong's Twitpic page.  Kind of interesting to see what he posts.  For example, I guess someone stole his TT bike.  Since I am still riding my LeMond, it clearly wasn't me.

The End of Human Excursion

‘‘It was as if the brain was playing a trick on the body, to save it,’’ says Timothy Noakes, head of the Cape Town group. ‘‘Which makes a lot of sense, if you think about it. In fatigue, it only feels like we’re going to die. The actual physiological risks that fatigue represents are essentially trivial.’’

The more I learn about endurance athletes and the ability of people to push themselves to the very end of our physical limits, the more I realize we are only starting to learn what that means.  That being said, while you cannot help but be impressed by such displays of human accomplishment, at some point you find yourself asking, "is something wrong here?"

As I read the New York Times article on ultra-endurance athlete Jure Robic I couldn't help myself but be a little concerned.  Not so much for Robic (although the "is something wrong here" red flag did appear), but for people I know who will have to push themselves to somewhat similar limits.

Then of course I realized there are lessons to be learned about this story.  He has a very tightly controlled system with his crew, and his success in these races depends not so much on the turning of his legs, but the ability of his right hand men to make sure he is pushed to the limit and motivated in the way that works for him.

It is a very interesting article.  Not only does it discuss Robic, but also just what exactly causes fatigue.

Note: 

• It does note in the article that Lance Armstrong has hinted that he might try RAAM.  So I will add that to the list of things people speculate Armstrong will do.  Other activities include open a bike shop (done), date every famous woman on earth (well on his way), Ironman triathlons, cure cancer, and run for president. 
  

Catch Up Post

Well we had a great weekend in Iowa. I survived the Drake Relays on the Road Half Marathon. I will give it proper attention in a full write up later in the week.  There are a lot of other stories I needed to follow up on. I apologize I am so far behind.

Lance and Mike in Boston

The Boston Marathon was a few weeks ago. You may remember my joking about Lance Armstrong becoming an Ironman competitor a while back. It seemed to make sense to me as he is obviously strong in the bike, and his marathon times keep creeping down. That along with the fact he actually started his career in tri’s before moving to a full time professional cyclist.

He finished race just over 2:50 minutes. I am pretty certain that is his PR, but not quite as good as he had hoped to do (I think he was hoping for something in the low 2:40s). Still for Boston, which is a fairly hilly race, that is a great job. I will be interested to see how he does in NYC this fall.

Also running in Boston was former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. His day did not end so well as he had to drop out of the race with runners knee (an IT band issue). I guess he needs to spend more time running, less time running for president. A problem we all run into from time to time.

Liz Rocked St. Anthony's
Last week I wished my friend and classmate at ND Liz Berls good luck on her first tri. She did very well (Swim: 25:38, Bike 1:33:49, Run: 59:22, Total: 3:07:43!). Yes, Liz is a very good swimmer. What I wouldn’t do to get out of the water in 25 minutes.

She wrote a cool summery of her weekend. I will steal a little bit of it for those of you who are thinking about doing a tri, or more importantly thinking of doing an endurance event for a charity.

"This was truly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and am proud that I not only completed this physical and mental challenge but also surpassed my fund raising goal by raising more than $5600 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society."

Yep, that is over $1000 more than her goal. Great job Liz. I have done a few events for charity, it really adds to the experience. I cannot say enough good things about Team in Training (the endurance sport training wing of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society). Not only is my father in remission from lymphoma, but my good friend in Kansas City Emily runs one of the Team in Training groups. They really do a great job raising important research dollars and getting people trained for triathlons, marathons, and century rides. If you have never done one of these events and are thinking about it, look up Team in Training.

For those of you who didn’t donate to Liz’s fund, here is your last chance. Click here.

Sharks
Very sad story out of California.  I man was training for a triathlon lost his life to a shark attack.  I must admit this has always been a slight fear of mine.  I am not a good swimmer. I have enough to thinking about while swimming. I have a small fear of the ocean to start with… now we are hearing about more shark attacks. This story is tragic, but according to the experts, you have a better chance of dying via car accident on the way to the beach than you do by shark attack.

In other news, while there may be cougars roaming Chicago, there are no reports of great white sharks in Lake Michigan.  So I am safe for now.

Hy-Vee Tri Looking Better All the Time
It is a rare occasion when a law is passed that completely make sense, one where you want to call your local representative and say “Thank you.” Well that happened in Iowa recently. The state senate made an exception to the rule disallowing acholhol served on the state capital grounds at any time. And the one acception… the finish line for the Hy-Vee Triathlon.

Oh, we going to booze it up! Margarittas with the Govenor Culver! Would you like another martini Lt Gov Judge? I can only assume that they will have beer instead of Gatorade at the water stops right?

Wrong, but it will be fun to have a little bubbly if I make it to the finish line.

Payout for Des Moines?
Lastly, I thought I would bring some attention to this article from Tuscaloosa, which discusses how much money they brought in for having the tri there. Hopefully there will be a similar revenue flow headed Des Moines way for hosting the Hy-Vee Triathlon in June. I am a big fan of the Hy-Vee event, and I hope it continues to grow it as the years pass.

Hoops Team Report
My rec basketball team won our second game on Monday. It was the first win in which I was in town to play. I knocked down a bunch of free throws at the end of the game to seal it, apparently earning my new nickname “Ice Cold.” [I would really like to put an Outkast song in here now, but despite the use of the phase “ice cold” I don’t think the rest of the song would impress many of the readers.]

Workout Report
Last night was a killer one at the Chicago Blue Dolphins practice. We were in the long 50 m pool, where I worked out with the “transition” group. Believe me, I was fine with that. The Group 1 was doing repeat 300, which was just a little too aggressive for me. I was just fine doing my repeat 150, which might as well been repeat miles for me.

Swim:
1700 M, 1.5 Hours

An Open Letter to Lance Armstrong

Dear Lance,

I am just writing you today to wish you good luck in this year’s Boston Marathon. Hopefully they won’t have a northeaster like last year so you can make you goal of mid 2:40s.

I am also very excited to see you run the NYC Marathon this fall. Hopefully I win the lottery too, so I can run with you. By the way, that goal of mid 2:30s there is pretty cool too.

You wouldn’t be thinking about buying a beach house in Kona would you?

I am pretty sure everyone in the multisport world, with he exception of those who want to win, would love to see you there.

Yours truly,

Dave