Almost a Triathlete

"Almost" you say? Yes, almost.
On Friday the race organizers notified the entrants that the lake had high ecoli levels and to beware and to avoid swallowing water if possible.

On Saturday they emailed back and cancelled the swim.  Then later Saturday they emailed again with a further explanation.  See the excerpt below

For those of you who still wanted to swim I want to share some numbers with you so you might understand our decision a little better.

The DNR requires signs warning the public of ecoli levels in two situations.  One if the 30 day average rises above 126 ecoli colonies per 100ml of water.  Two if any single reading rises above 235 ecoli colonies per 100ml of water. The latest water test for Hickory Grove is 790 ecoli colonies per 100ml of water.  That is over three times the level consider safe by the Iowa DNR.  We hope this helps give you some understanding of our decision. In past years Hickory Grove has had readings around 20 colonies give or take.  We will be working with park staff to resolve this issue and return the water quality the park has enjoyed for several years. Thanks for your understanding. Alex and Steve

 Disappointed but understandable and glad I didn't swim in something that could have made me incredibly ill.

So they converted my first Triathlon into a duathlon ... 1mile run, 15.5 mile bike, 2.1 mile run.

Sat afternoon I drove up to pick up my race packet and then drove over to drive the bicycle course.  When I got there there were about 6 people swimming in the lake.  No signs posted anywhere.

Race Report Coming up next

Im going to puke on my desk

This race is just a few days a way and I feel so unprepared with everything that has gone on in my life over the last week.  2 mediocre workouts in 7 days and non ideal nutrition.  Im freaking out.

New widget - Skip the Pie

On the right hand side just below the Myfitnesspal.com weight loss  badge I added a new widget from http://skipthepie.org/

Now you can just search for any food item and pull up the nutritional info.  Very neat!

Boy do I have a story for you

Im a new Daddy! Yay!

Thomas Joe
7lbs. 6.4 oz
21"
Born 4:03 PM Aug. 16th

So... Baby was scheduled to be born via C-Section on Aug 29th at 8 AM.   I left for Kansas City for a conference on Sunday the 14th.  I was supposed to come back on the 16th at 3 pm.  My wife said, "Im going to have this baby while your gone."  She said that for 2 months leading up to my trip.  Sure enough she went in for an appointment on the morning of the 16th and she was dilated to 2 cm.  so they decided to keep her for observation.  She called me at 9:30 am and warned me what was going on and that I may need to start driving back.  The morning progressed and at around 11:10 am she called again and said the doctors were going to go ahead and do the c-section that day and they would hold off as long as they could with the plan to go in at 3:00 pm.   I packed and left the Hotel at 11:30 drove like a mad man stopped for gas and food once just outside of KC.  I actually arrived at the hospital at 2:55 and was changed and ready to go to the Operating room at 2:58pm.

As I mentioned above baby Thomas was born at 4:03 pm.  Mom was sent to recovery and I went with baby up to the birthing suite where mom and baby would remain for the next 2 days.  Baby was all cleaned up and stats taken and all the other little things nurses do to new babies just after they are born.  Thomas was doing great I got to hold him and he is AWESOME.  About an hour later mom came up from recovery and she got to spend time with Thomas and feed him.

This is where things get scary.   I came in to see how mom and baby were doing after feeding.  He wasn't really hungry they said and the nurse was gogin to take him and do a vitals check.  That's when they started telling us that he wasn't breathing good and his blood oxygen levels were low.  He wasn't maintaining his body temp very good either.  The nurse suggested they might need to transfer him to a bigger hospital,with with a special Childrens wing, about 30 miles away.  About 20 min later they told us they were definitely transferring him.   My wife is still stuck in her room and I'm hovering around the incubator he is in just hanging out and being with the little guy.  We are very concerned and no one can really tell us why this is happening.  The nurse gets off the phone with the doc and she tells me that They are going to send him by Life Flight Helicopter and that it is on its way and will be here in a few minutes.

At the NICU Day 1

The Life flight crew gets there and they have brought a nurse form the neonatal unit with them and they start working on him and end up putting a tube down his throat to force oxygen into his lungs.  This is probably the scariest thing I have ever been through.  I'm just glad my wife didn't have to see any of this.  It was so horrible to see him laying there so completely helpless and unable to even breath on his own.  At this point they are starting to get him stabilized and they move him to the helicopter transport incubator.  They are preparing to leave and they wheel him in to say goodbye to mom before taking off.  The nurses are talking to mom and letting her reach in and touch his hand.  I get handed some paper work that says I agree to let them work on my son and fly him off to the other facility.  Then one of the Life Flight nurses asks me if I want to ride along.

YES!! Of course I do.  They never let you ride with them! I couldn't believe it.  She says, "how much do you weigh?"  I tell her I'm "right around 200lbs" and she says "I think that will be fine but we will check with the pilot before take off".   Im so glad I lost all this weight. they wouldn't have even asked me before.  I was way to heavy.

I'm excited and worried and scared all at the same time.  The nurses have assured me that Thomas is going to be fine we just need to get him up to the hospital so he can be cared for by specialists.
We head out to the HeliPad and I get the break down and instructions on what I should and shouldn't do.  The pilot comes out and says "we are way good to fly".  *Thumbs Up*

They load Thomas in the back and then set me up with a headset and show me how to work it.  Next thing I know we are in the air.
the Helicopter ride was surreal and amazing.  I was so worried for my son but by the time we were almost there I was looking around and checking things out.  We flew over the fairgrounds and the rides were all lit up and shining and going.  fireworks were going off and the view of our capitol building was amazing.  The ride was just minutes Id say more then 10 but less then 15min from lift off to landing.  It was crazy cool and something awesome I got to share with my son.  Ill have to tell him about the hot Life Flight nurses who thought he was so cute when he is older.


They get him admitted into the NICU and start hooking him up to all kinds of machines and I'm just sitting there watching all these nurses and doctors work on my son.  Time is nonexistent and is only a theory.  I knew at one point what time we got there and remember looking at the clock as things settled down and one of the nurses told me I should lay down and try to sleep at 2:35 am.

The next day the doctors gave me a more elaborate explanation of why we were there and what had happened.  During the C-Section as he was being delivered he took his first breath of air and inhaled blood into his lungs this is referred to as blood aspirated pneumonitis.

How long will we be in here?  7 days minimum until antibiotics have finished.

Look Ma' No Oxygen

I spend the next 36 hours alone in the hospital with my new son before my wife is able to be released from her location and we spend the next few days together all day in the room waiting for things to change watching the monitors and oxygen meter parying for things to get better.

Tuesday the 23rd is his last day of Antibiotics But he isnt allowed to leave because his oxygen levels are still to low.  So our stay is extended.




Thursday morning we get the OK!  We are going home!!!

Swim, eat, swim, sleep, swim...

     Oh my gosh!  I have been swimming a lot.  I think my hair has gotten lighter.  I've really been hitting the pool hard More swimming then I have done in the past even when I was training before.  I guess part of it is that I know the swim is my weak spot and I know I can do the bike and run.  This week though I have come to a really cool revelation.  This week while training I realized that I can do this.  Not just complete.  I've known that I could complete, with the proper amount of training, but more importantly that I can progress and be successful at this.
     My swimming has really come a long way since February when I hurt my knee.  Funny thing is I haven't had more then 12 days of swimming practice.  I have progressed so much since February.  I was swimming 500m in about 17-19 min and barely making any progress.  I was struggling to breathe and just felt like I was flailing around while trying with everything I had to move my body from one end of the pool to the other.  Something has changed.  I dont know if its the push/drive because the race is 16 days away or if I just finally have got it tuned up to when I'm seeing results and I feel confident in my ability.  
     This week I did 2 things I had never done.  I swam my fastest 500m ever; 11 min 48 sec.   Woot!!  AND... I swam my furthest distance ever while training.  1600m   The best part about this is I really feel like I can make  more progress in the next 16 days I think I might be able to get close to a 10 min time on my swim.  I know where my flaws in my stroke are and I work on them everyday.  

No turning back now

I have lost my mind.  Since February, and my knee injury, I have been plagued with gettign back into a full swing of running.  I have struggled as you have seen on the pages of this blog.  But in the last 2 weeks I have had several good runs including 2 different 5+ milers that were further then my previous distances.  So I felt as if I was ready to actually do a race.  So this morning in a fit of idiocy I signed up for Hickory Grove Triathlon on August 28th.  

That's 24 days!!

I must be a fool.  I mean I know I have the ability to do this and I know I can finish that's no problem.  I just feel overwhelmed with incredible emotions of fear and failure.   Freaked out!  

On top of that I have verbally committed to doing the Des Moines IMT Half Marathon Oct. 16th.  Strangely I feel much more confident about the half marathon then I do about the Tri.  I have no idea why.  the furthest distance I have ever traveled a half marathon distance on foot was probably at the state fair while sucking down a corn dog over 8 hours.

I intend to work on my distance over the next 40 days leading up to the marathon and my swimming over the next 24.   

I felt I needed to pull the trigger on some races before I allowed a season to slip away.  The injusry set me back and has kept me from really making forward progress and I believe a hard date with no backing out will do that for me.   Plus I promised myself I would do the Tri this year.  The Half marathon is just a bonus!

I cant wait!