Uninsured Motorist Coverage

As some of you who frequent Triscoop are well aware, but many of you aren't, our triathlon buddy Gusano from Diboll, TX was in a horrible bike accident last August. The good news is that Gusano is well on his way to recovery, and hopes to get back out there on the race course this March at the Lonestar Sprint Triathlon down in Galveston, TX.

I'd read about his accident and later heard him interviewed on Tyler Darby's (aka Jetpack) podcast just days after the accident, but only learned recently that the person who hit Gusano wasn't insured. No problem right? It turns out, unbeknownst to Gusano, that he didn't have uninsured motorist protection which left him exposed to all of the medical bills his health insurance wouldn't cover.

I had Gusano send me a note giving me the details to post to my blog. My hopes are that everyone who gets out there on the roads to run or bike or into the lake to open water swim* will double check their auto insurance policies to be sure they have this coverage, and to add it if they don't. Here is Gusano's story:

On August 18, 2007 at 7:00pm after about 56 miles of riding, my sister and I were passing through a neighborhood to lead us back home. I was going down a hill when a suburban turned left onto a side street in front of me. I do not remember anything from about 15 minutes before the wreck to about 2 hours after the wreck. I am told that I smashed into the side of the suburban busting out the back seat passenger side window. My sister said when she rode up on me that I was lying down, holding my shoulder and saying it was hurting pretty bad. My arm was bleeding pretty badly so she took her cycling shirt and wrapped it around the open wounds. She said I kept asking what happened and where we were. The ambulance arrived and strapped me down onto a spine board and that’s when I mentioned that my neck hurt. We went to the local hospital and after many x-rays a CAT scan, and MRI they came in and said my neck was broken in three places and that they were sending me to Houston for surgery. This was the first I remember. I remember dying of thirst, but they couldn’t give me any water and the spine board was very uncomfortable. I laid in the ER in Houston on a Saturday night until around 6am Sunday morning. Hours later I had more x-rays and another MRI. This all showed that my neck was stable and I would not need surgery. The three broken vertebra turned into one and somehow two of the vertebra were already fused together. They had also slipped forward tearing all the ligaments and stuff holding them together. Without surgery I would wear a hard neck brace for about 12 weeks. They preformed surgery on my shoulder and removed tons of broken glass from beneath my skin. It would be weeks later until another doctor looked at my shoulder and determined that it had been fractured and separated. I was released from the hospital on Wednesday. I had many checkups on my neck and lots of physical therapy for my shoulder. It has been about 5 months since the accident and I feel about 90% healed. My scars remind me everyday and I feel grateful and very lucky.

During all this time I have talked to 3 different lawyers about this case. Turns out the guy that hit me did not have insurance on his vehicle but showed proof of insurance at the wreck. His excuse was that he was in the process of selling the vehicle. The officer did not ticket the guy for failure to yield and made excuses that I was hard to see. The man that hit me still says today that it was not his fault and I came out of nowhere. Luckily, I had medical insurance that pays 80%. But still when medical bills add up to about $100k and you’re still receiving them in the mail it can get expensive for you. So the guy doesn’t have insurance and no lawyer will want to take the case since they are not guaranteed any money. I could pay the lawyer up front for all the fees but in the end I would just be out more money. You can’t get anything from someone who has nothing. We looked into my car insurance for help. Turns out I don’t have Uninsured Motorist Coverage. This coverage would have paid for all my medical expenses and any other injury-related loss. We added it the day we found out. I have never known about this coverage and for a few bucks more it’s worth every penny. I did have PIP or Personal Injury Protection which was $2,500. Hey it covered my ambulance ride!!

Again, take a look at your coverage and make sure you all are in good shape.

Thanks for sharing the story with us Gus! Looking forward to reading your race report from Galveston!

*I had a masters swim teammate get chopped up by the prop of a drunk boater in Atlanta while doing a group swim

Triathlon Inflation

I signed up for the CapTex Tri today. I figured I'd try to cash in on the early bird savings. Much to my surprise, the all in costs after Active.com's ~$9 surcharge was $128!!! Is it me, or is that absolutely outrageous?

I first did this race in 2005, and while I can't find what I paid back then, I can tell that it cost $89 (with surcharge) in 2006, and I believe it was $100+active surcharge in 2007.

I just find this absurd, and yet, I still paid it. I guess I'm perpetuating the problem by handing over my hard earned dollars.

This is why ideas like self supported triathlons make some sense. If you haven't checked out 140dot6, give it a look. It is an online community that promotes the self supported triathlon.

For me, I prefer the social aspect of races so I can't see myself doing a self supported ironman like many at 140dot6 are preping for, but at $128 for an Olympic distance race, I'm starting to have doubts.

Off for a COLDDDDDDD run.

Back in the Saddle Thanks to Joe

Howdy to all.

I doubt you've been swinging by the blog lately, no reason to really. But if you have, you may have noticed that the last 5 workouts log on the right has been getting updated pretty regularly, and that I've been consistently logging some workouts again.

Work in Nov and Dec were insane and I couldn't seem to be healthy and find free time at the same time for about 6 weeks, so as a result my training suffered. I bagged the Houston Half Marathon, which seems to be an every other year tradition of mine, and decided to work on filling out the spare tire around my mid section.

Anyhow, I'm in the middle of Prep Phase week #4 (following Joe Friel's Triathlete Training Bible Training method). Next week will be the beginning of my base phase. I'm training up to the CapTex Tri in Austin Texas on May 29th. I'll do a couple of races along the way, but that is the first "A" race on the schedule for '08. I'll do 12 weeks of base training, 4 weeks of build, then 2 weeks of Taper/Race.

For those not familiar with Joe's training method, he uses HR Zones to dictate intensity in each workout. In order to establish your zones, you need to conduct Lactate Threshold (LT) tests for both the run and bike every 4-8 weeks. I think he has a test for swimming, but I'm pretty comfortable with controlling effort in the water and have always done my own thing there.

So back to the LT tests. They are basically 30 mins of an all out sustained effort. You take your Avg HR for the last 20 mins of your effort, and that is your LT. From there, you can set your zones using a table which you'll follow during your training as perscribed by Joe. Pretty common stuff for how triathletes train. Well I did my run LT test last night on the local HS track, and wow does that effort hurt. So my LT HR right now is 179. Much higher than I thought it would be, but the test went well. I dosed my effort correctly and didn't go out too hard or save too much for the end. It was a good test, so I'm going to trust the results.

Well I have a power tap for my bike that I got around the middle of last season and I was hoping to switch from HR as the unit defining my Zones to watts as the unit of measure. Unfortunately, Joe's most recent version of the Training Bible (the 2nd edition) came out before power meters had begun to be commonly held by amateurs, so he didn't elaborate on how to do this. There is some interesting info on use of Power Meters in the book, but no way to set zones which is critical if you are planning to follow his methods.

As I was contemplating this challenge I had, I recalled back in 2005 when studies regarding the impacts of vitamin E supplements came out that potentially contradicted some advice Joe put forth in one of his books (can't remember if it was Going Long or the TTB), that I found his email address on-line and shot him an email asking for his thoughts. Not expecting a reply, Joe responded to my email within 15 minutes of me sending it with a thorough explanation of the differences between the studies recently published and his recommendations for use of vitamin E as a supplement. You can't imagine how cool I thought this was.

So I thought, I have a question for Joe, why not send him an email again. It turns out that Joe now has a blog on Blogger [Joe Friel's Blog] with his email address published on it. I sent Joe an email with my question/dilemma, and what do you know - 15 Minutes later, I have a response from Joe saying he would post how to set zones using watts from a 30 min LT test to his blog some time this week when he had time. 24 hours later, my answer is published.

Lucky for me, the reference he sites as the source for his info, Allen and Cogan's book Training and Racing With Power (which can be purchased from Amazon using the link on the right side of my blog - cha ching) is a book I got over the holidays. I read the section outlining FTP last night, and there is no more to it than Joe outlines in his post. The only difference is that Allen and Cogan suggest doing a 10 min warmup at 65% of max effort, then 5 minutes at max effort to take the freshness out of your legs, then recover for 10mins at 65% of max effort, then do a 20min TT at max sustained effort. Your avg wattage over this 20 min effort is your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). You can set your zones with the following table:

Zone 1 <55%>
Zone 3 76-90% of FTP (tempo)
Zone 4 91-105% of FTP (lactate threshold)
Zone 5 106-120% of FTP (VO2max)
Zone 6 121-150% of FTP (anaerobic capacity)
Zone 7 >150% of FTP (neuromuscular power)

Like Joe says, FTP changes more rapidly than LT HR does, so testing every 4 weeks will probably be the way to go until I begin to plateau as I gain fitness.

So the bottom line is that I can use power this year to set my zones, and Joe Friel is a really freaking smart guy, who is super responsive to his readers' questions.

Definitely check out his blog, there are all kinds of goodies on it.

Off to the pool!

Cool Sites

Here are a few cool sites I've stumbled across over the last few months that I think you should check out.

Mad Sci Network is a great idea. Get the answers to every question you ever dreamed up. From "What is the meaning of life?" to "Why do I shiver when I pee?" and everything in between. Post questions and get answers from really smart people with time on their hands.

Atom Films is another good one. Its been around for ever and everyone has visited it in the past for its creative shorts. But maybe you are like me (hopefully not for your sake), and something takes you there about twice a year, and you enjoy it, and you try to make a mental note to visit the site more often, but never remember to hit it up the next time you are surfing. Well it is still good, and I think I've solved my dilemma by bookmarking it.

Revision 3 is a great site. I'm a fan of Digg Nation which is housed here, but there are a few other online programs that are worth checking out.

CNet is a great place to go to find cool free downloads in addition to reviews of gadgets and software. Go to the home page, click on downloads and read up on cool stuff that is helpful, reliable, and has all the bugs pretty well worked out of it.

Cellar Tracker is a must for all wine drinkers out there. For no fee, you can load your personal wine collection into your own profile, then read reviews on wines you have or are interested in buying, add tasting notes to the community, get viewer rankings, and manage your own personal inventory. Its a great idea. For a subscription, you can get info on pricing which can help you to identify deals at your local bottle shop if that is your thing. But there is plenty of functionality without paying a dime.

To-Do List is another one I've just stumbled across. I'm still trying to get in to it, but I love the concept. Rather than describe it myself, I'm going to copy the general idea right off of the blog. It is basically a "collection of 100 handwritten lists and the stories behind them. To-Do List celebrates the world of the overlooked and mundane, letting our lists serve as unique windows into who we are. Nothing is more revealing than someone's to-do list."

Check these out and give me your thoughts. If there is anything you would like to add, please do. And don't forget to thanks your respective god(s) when you go to be tonight for giving us Al Gore - Creator of the Internet!

What Ale's me?

This fall is turning out to be a real challenge in terms of getting the consistent running in that I'd like to.

Work has been busy, and I've been doing a bit of traveling which was not anticipated.

Now I find myself sick and out of commission! I woke up with it on Friday and sitting here blogging on Sunday night, I don't think I've reached the apex of the sickness. I'm hoping I wake up tomorrow and things have made a turn for the better, but we'll see.

We had an arctic blast hit Dallas on Wed. It was 75 degrees on my way in to work, and by that night, temps were in the low 40s. A drastic change like that is bound to bring out the bug in you assuming you've already been exposed, and with my entire office and kids sick for the past month, it was only a matter of time before I succumbed.

I went out in 39 degree weather for a great tempo run on Thursday morning. That must have done it for me.

I was able to get an easy spin in on the trainer on Friday, and tried to go for a light jog on the treadmill tonight (Sunday), but I wasn't feeling it, and bagged it after 20 mins.

I had my eyes on taking my wife's entry into the white rock half marathon in 2 weeks and going for my sub 2 hr goal, but I've missed my long run two weeks in a row, and think I ought to stick to the original plan of shooting for the Houston Half Marry.

Happy Thanksgiving

Long time no blog, I know.

To be honest, I really haven't had a ton to report on. I took my family and my parents to Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. I was sitting on the couch on Wednesday trying to figure out what to do that weekend, and 24 hours later, the plans were set. One of the benefits to working for an airline is spur of the moment trips.

Some know that I lived in Atlanta from 1995-2003, and went to undergrad there. It's a town I'm very fond of for a number of reasons, so it was great to go back and visit.

We were shocked at how much had changed in the past 4 years. Tons of development in town. Urban revitalization at its finest I'd say. Certainly a real-estate developer/investor's dream.

On Sat morning, we headed over to Emory U., my Alma matter, to walk around campus. Like the rest of Atlanta, Emory has been building, renovating, and expanding at a rapid rate. It looks great. We stopped by the P.E. Center, which had a third floor added to the top of it over the last couple of years to check out a Varsity men's soccer game (Emory was crushing Carnegie Mellon U.) then peeked in on the pool and saw the 4 or 5 guys who didn't travel with the team to Savannah, GA for a swim meet that day finish up their morning workout.

I graduated in 1999, and every men's team record has since been re-written since I left. The oldest record on the books was Sebastian Popa's 200 Butterfly record set in 2002, which I witnessed him set. Other than that, they were all 6 mos to 2 years old.

The team went through a drastic change while I was a student. When I was recruited to swim there, it was a sleepy team that didn't field a full squad and had to fight it out for 3rd and 4th place (out of 8 teams) in our conference.

By my Junior year, we had begun transforming into a more "proper" team training more like I did in High School (basically more often, smarter, and harder) and results followed.

No one will admit this, but Emory is now a top NCAA swim program due to the efforts of former assistant Coach Jessica Berkowitz. She was hired during my sophomore year and overhauled the attitude, recruiting, and training philosophy of the team taking us from a team with one top 10 finish at the National Championships ever, to a consistent top 5 finisher and eventual runner-up National Champion (the women's team won a national championships in '06). Without her overhaul, we wouldn't have landed the recruits we began to land, and the head coach we eventually hired who was able to take us over the top.

During my senior year, the men's team won our conference championships for the first time ever bringing down the Johns Hopkins dynasty. That year, we ended up 6th at the National Championships, and we've been top 3 nearly every year since.

Let me be perfectly clear, I feel I had more to do with the success out of the pool than in it. I was a good High School swimmer, but never bettered my best times in my best events, the 100 and 200 backstroke while in college. My PR's were set when I was 17 years old. Luckily, I was good enough as a high schooler to be able to continue contributing and scoring as a collegiate swimmer. We had some amazing athletes who were the reason for the team's success, but I like to believe that as a captain that year along with my co-captain, that we were able to foster an environment that set us up to succeed, primarily by helping to change the attitude of the team from passive and self deprecating to aggressive and confident.

Visiting the pool that morning brought back fond memories for sure. That was the first place I ever saw my wife, and were our friendship began. My closest friends from undergrad were teammates. When I looked down from the bleachers into the water, it was strange. How many hours did I spend in that water? How many miles have I covered in that little 50 meter x 25 yard space? How much suffering did I put myself through in that space? How much was learned in that space? In a way, it was like digging up a time capsule and revisiting old memories.

So the trip to Atlanta was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to visit again.

US Men's Olympic Trials

The results from the Men's US Olympic Marathon Trials certainly fill me with emotions that scratch both ends of my feeling spectrum.

In January of this year, I ran the Houston Half Marathon. After completing the race, I met up with friends who were out on the course watching and they mentioned that the lead runner who passed them out on the course was all alone, American, and absolutely flying.

That runner turned out to be Ryan Hall, who went on to break the American Record in the half marathon that morning while becoming the first American to break the "Hour" in the half marry with a 59:43. If you've got 15 minutes, this video is a can't miss.



That was Ryan's first half marathon. He went on to run the London Marathon in the Spring (His first full marathon) finishing 7th in a very deep field with a 2:08.24, the fastest debut marathon for an American breaking a record held by Alberto Salazar and Alan Culpepper.

Last weekend, Ryan Hall won the Men's US Olympic Trials with a 2:09.02 out pacing Dathan Ritzenheim and Brian Sell by 2:05 and 2:37 respectively. A very convincing win.

The connection I made with Ryan being out on the same course in Houston with him (though over an hour behind) this past January and the excitement he generated by coming out of nowhere to bring American distance running back on the map will forever earn him a spot in my heart and mind as I am now a loyal follower and fan of his.

Transpose this excitement with the news that Ryan Shay, who trained with Meb Keflezighi and Ryan up in Mammoth Lakes with coach Bob Larsen for a time, passed away during his attempts to reach his Olympic dream this past Saturday, and you can quickly become overwhelmed with confusion and mixed emotions. Though I have not seen results of the autopsy, news that he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart at a young age and other heart conditions in his family lead me to believe that there may be a correlation.

I could write about how we should all be grateful for our health or to visit our physicians regularly to ensure all is well, but at this point it all seems to be trivial or cliche.

We all know why we do it. I look at people doing Ironmans, Ultra Marathons, those attempting to summit Everest, or even something as simple as swimming so hard you puke or faint the moment you stand upright after climbing out of the pool. I get it, and I would never question someone who aspired to push their body to the limit. In fact, I find it more frustrating listening to the lay person talk about how stupid or dangerous it all is. In my mind, not knowing whether or not you can or can't, and not knowing approximately where your limit is is not living.


Ryan Shay 1979 - 2007