The Gillens.net

Paris Trip, June 29-July 4th

June 29: Departing DFW to Charles de Galle
Jamie and I arrived 4 hours prior to departing so we could check in early and try to get high on the priority list. No big deal, other than it created a few hours extra down-time on that day. Jamie and her mom took a trip after checking-in to Dee Dee’s house in Grapevine, and David took me to Mimi’s Café for a lunch together before leaving.
We met up at the gate around 4:10, and our names were called at that very moment! We got seats! They weren’t in business class, but at least we got on. And we got to sit next to each other. The plane ride offered a couple meals…I don’t really remember them. Nothing remarkable happened on the flight, but we got to watch “27 Dresses” before knocking out for the night.

June 30: Arriving in CDG
At 9:38 am, we arrived! We got our luggage, used the restroom, and then started toward the RER Line B (suburban train to take us to Paris). The airport was very crowded, and the walk was very long, but we were confident we were navigating it like pros! That is…until we were told to STOP and TURN AROUND by men and women carrying machine guns. This was a turning point. Do we stay? Do we turn around? Jamie is really wishing she had packed Dee Dee’s “French for Dummies.” Okay. We turn around and eventually find out to just wait in that area. A bag was left unattended, and the police had to secure the area. After about 10 minutes of confusion, we were on our way and feeling like pros again!
We bought our RER tickets and took the train to St. Michel where we bought our 5-day “Visite” pass for the Metro. After helping some Chilean tourists, we made our way to our hotel stop at Vavin. We’re almost there! We get out on the street and are a little confused by the 5-star intersections. We walked around a bit, and then we finally got to our first hotel, L’Atelier Montparnasse. Upon arrival, the nice assistant showed us to the hotel elevator and explained “it is small, and I will send your luggage up later.” What?! Could it be that small that we wouldn’t fit? … Well, uhmm… this thing was like a tiny phone booth. Jamie and I crack up, but my claustrophobia sets in, and I start thinking “Jamie, stop breathing my air!”
We squeeze out of the elevator and go to our room. It is so cute! We knew we’d have blast here. We decide to unpack, and Jamie is ready for trail mix her mom made her. As she unzips the bag, trail mix literally pours out of the suit case and onto the floor! Oh my goodness, I had no idea how excited she was to pack her trail mix! After cleaning it up and changing clothes, we walked to the second hotel we will stay in and visit the nearby Luxembourg Gardens. The sun was so nice, and we sat and sunbathed with hundreds of others.
After our break, we get ambitious and want to navigate the area right away. We plan to walk to the river and visit Isle de Cite. We stop at the Pont Neuf for pictures. Then we continued to Saint Chapelle. We didn’t have a museum pass yet, so we take pictures outside. Not far was Notre Dame, where we strolled through the inside. Out back, we listed to a jazz band play while resting our feet. We were really starting to fall in love with the culture.
We read in Rick Steve’s to go to La Pallete and sit outside. La Pallete was very hip, bursting with young Parisians. We orded cold Perrier but later found out there was no food served. So, we were off to find food! Near the Luxembourg Gardens we stopped at the News Café for dinner.  After refueling, we had a few miles left in our marathon, so we head to the Eiffel Tower. As the sun was setting, we walked around and watched others having picnics on the lawn. The evening was clear and cool, and we hoped to come back later in our trip

July 1st
We went for a run around the Luxembourg Gardens, and enjoyed the morning there with many other runners! Jamie got a touch of asthma, so we headed back to the hotel for her inhaler. We walked a bit to find coffee, and I order my first café au lait. We packed up, and we moved to our new hotel, Hotel Perreyve on rue Madam. Our room was ready for us, and we checked in!
Our first tour was at the Muse D’ Orsay. We stood in line with hundreds of others, and bought our Museum Pass. Jamie’s favorites at the museum were the Renoir and Monet paintings. I agree…I love Monet! We stopped at Café de deaux Musee to refuel. After a late lunch, we went to Arc de Triomphe. We wanted to go up in it, but it seemed to be blocked up. So, we decided to walk the Champs Eleyse were we toured the Toyota store and were amazed at all the futuristic designs. We also toured Louis Vitton and picked out a new set of luggage.  We continued to the Petit Palaise for a short walk and cold drink. We loved the small café there, as it has cold a/c pumping!
We hopped on the Metro and headed to the Moulin Rouge. The only shows available were at 11 pm. What?! Are we even acclimated yet? No…we decided to skip a late show. We decided to pick up some fresh fruit, nuts, and biscuits for a picnic on the hill of Sacre Coure. So many people had the same idea, but it was lovely! The view from the mountain was incredible, and all of Paris shined before us! We took some pictures and headed down the mountain to a shopping district. Too bad we were late in our shopping, since the stores closed up at 7pm. But we found a nearby internet café and let our loved-ones know we are safe.
Jamie and I were hoping to sit on a café porch and drink wine this night. We went by a popular area, but very few seats were available to sit. We decided on a front-row table at one café. Jamie ordered a red wine and I a white wine. However, we both got white wine. The waiter didn’t get the order right, but the gentlemen next to Jamie were more than eager to help her! (Ooh, La La!) She declined their help, and we enjoyed ourselves, anyways. The sun was going down, but we couldn’t believe it was already 10:45 pm! Never would it have been this light at home.

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Sorry about lack of updates but we have very limted internet access here.

LP is incredibly beautiful, but it’s been raining off and on both days w/ some really good down pours yesterday.  Warmer than I expected, but still nice around 75 ish.

Place is really buzzing as I expected.  Everyone you see is a fit triathlete.  I’m quite excited and nervous.

Practice swims have been great as the lake is quite clear.  Warmer water that I’d hope for (71 degrees), but it’s so nice to swim in a WS as it really help my body positioning.

Lodge is quite cool and spacious so that’s good.

Hills are quite long and steep.  Tougher than I expected.  We biked the run course yesterday and the 2 big climbs at mile 9 and 10.5 are very significant.   We’re going to drive the bike course today, but we saw the last 12 mile climb on our way into town and it’s not so-so bad, but parts are quite steep and long.

Couple of minor problems: 1) Forgot my battery charger for my camera and it’s completely dead so we’ve been having to rely on Brad’s camera and we haven’t been taking nearly as many pictures as I would’ve liked, but oh well.  2) I burned a decent blister on the tip of my finger when I accidently touched the top of a lamp light bulb.  Minor pain though.

Overall, I’m ready and excited.  Having been sleeping quite as well as I hoped to, but that’s probably to be expected w/ the nerves.

I’ll try to post on Monday!

College Graduation 1997

2001 Austin Marathon

As I’m getting both excited and nervous before my big “A” race of the year, Ironman USA in Lake Placid, NY this Sunday, I’m going to take a minute to reflect back on some things I’m proud I accomplished.

Weight Loss

As I kid I was thin and active in sports, but things changed my 1st year of college when I tripled the normal “Freshman 15″ weight gain and put on 45 lbs!  I went from 175 to 220 in about year!  Ouch.  I hovered around this weight for most of my college years as I became less and less active.

I picked up running in graduate school in the late 1990s, but I didn’t drop much weight as I continued to have bad eating habits (eating out a lot, regular cokes, not understanding the basic calories in/out principle, etc.).   After I graduated and started working full time, I put on even more weight reaching a maximum of 252 lbs (and a 44 in waist) when I weighed in as a “clydesdale” for the 2001 Austin Marathon.  Disappointed about not losing weight during marathon training, I tried to join a local gym a few months after the race.   They tested my blood pressure, and it was high enough that they required an “OK” note from my doctor before they’d even let me join!  Now while I knew I was heavy, I had previously thought I was always in decent health.  So to have someone tell me I had high blood pressure was quite a shock and turned out to be a pivotal point in my life.

I went to the doctor, got the note, joined the gym, and started working out during lunch.  However, it wasn’t the physical exercise that really helped me lose weight, it was the new eating habits.  I switched to diet coke, started having protein smoothies meal substitutes, minimized eating out, went to bed hungry occasionally instead of having that nighttime snack, ate a lot of fruit, etc, etc.   Lo and behold, the weight started coming off nicely.   I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure I was close to 200 lbs by the end of the year.

Now, as I’m about to race my 2nd Ironman, I’m about 170 lbs and have a 32 inch waist.  I’ve been under 190 for 4 years now and I’m proud that I’ve been able to keep the weight off.

170 lbs = Ironman Weight

2008 Austin Marathon

Sharing My Passion

Over the past few years, I’ve developed quite a passion for physical fitness, and I’m proud that I’ve been able to share that with a few important people:

• My wife Sarah: Our first date was a half marathon and the rest is history as they say.   Sarah already enjoyed running before we met.  I simply encouraged her to start racing and achieve her best.  She now consistently places in the top 5 within her age group at most her races.   We enjoy swimming, cycling, and running together and exercise is a big part of our lives.   I’m so happy that we share this together and its a big reason for my success.
• My best friend Jason: Volleyball has always been our first love together, but back in 2001 I partially inspired him to run with me in the Austin Marathon.   While we didn’t have the opportunity to train together much as I was in CA at the time, we did enjoy swapping training war stories and celebrating our successes after the race.

Learning Triathlon

Ironman Prizes

Sharing their logs

• A younger generation: Just recently, I started visiting a classroom at a local elementary school to encourage them to engage in and log physical activities.  This is part of NA Sports program called Adopt-An-Athlete where they provide a neat log booklet for the kids to log their exercise along with some really fun prizes to reward them.   I, as the athlete, go into the classroom for about 30 mins once a week and teach the kids about the importance of physical activity along with what triathlon and Ironman are all about.   While the Ironman training itself often feels like such a selfish endeavor,  this program provided me the perfect opportunity to share my enthusiasm with others while giving something back to the community where I train.

Even though I still have to race the 140.6 miles on Sunday, the hardest part is actually over: the training.   Training for my 2nd Ironman has been more enjoyable than my first primarily because I involved more of my friends in the process.  I’ve done a handful of key workouts with close friends such as Brad and Greg, and it’s been great sharing my training with all the super supportive members of BeginnerTriathlete.com.  I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting some other local athletes racing IMLP and it’s been fun training with them occasionally.

I’m confident in my training and I know I can finish.  I hoping to set a Personal Record (12:43) despite the tough course, and if the weather cooperates and I have a perfect day I could go sub 12 hours.  My friend Greg however made his own prediction of 11:48!

Wish me luck, and stay tuned for another report after the race.

- David

This Memorial Day weekend, my friend Brad and I joined about a dozen other triathletes for an incredible 2 days of cycling in th Ouachita Mountains in eastern Oklahoma. The main purpose of this trip was to prepare us for the mountain climbing (and descending) that we’ll experience in Adirondack Mountains when we race Ironman USA (IMLP) in Lake Placid, NY on July 20th, 2008.

Saturday

We left about 7:40am and it was already quite humid. The first 5 miles or so were flat and provided a nice warm up. Then we hit some nice 5-7% grades for a few miles which is exactly the type of grades we’ll experience in IMLP. The roads were smooth, the grades reasonable, and I was happy as this is exactly what I wanted. After 35 minute or so, we re-grouped at this park lodge and let everyone catch up. Then, the steep grades started! Probably a good 2 miles of 9-12% grades! It took me about 13 minutes which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really is when your HR is in Zone 5 (182), your cadence is around 50 rpm, and your speed is around 6 mph! I had never done a climb like this and it was tough.

Following this initial steep climb were greeted with several other steep, but shorter ones throughout the first 30 miles. Seeing the steep, long climbs appear in the distance was quite intimidating and could easily deteriorate your mental attitude. “We have to climb that. You must be kidding. Surely, that’s some other steep side road, right?!”

However, the most terrifying experience of the whole weekend occurred not on one of the monstrous climbs, but on the first steep descent. Within seconds, my speed went north of 40 mph and all of sudden my front wheel starts to wobble and shimmy violently out of control! I apply the brakes, but I don’t appear to slow down much and the shaking is just getting worse! I was absolutely terrified and I just had all those scary images of Tour de France riders having horrendous crashes on the descends in Alps! I just knew I was going down and it was going to real bad. It felt like my front wheel was completely loose or something, like I didn’t clamp it down tight and it was just rattling around in the fork! I thought it might fly off my fork any minute and that would be it! Somehow, I kept control and stayed upright and managed to slow down finally. I came to a complete stop at which point my legs were trembling out of control from just nerves! It took a few moments to check over my bike and everything looked OK. I figured I might have been applying the front brake to hard or something or that maybe my wheels were out of true. Either way, I really had no choice but to continue, and after a few seconds to regain my nerves, I started down again. Although this time, I rode the brakes pretty good and didn’t get too close to 40 again for quite a while.

Later, I research this phenomenon and found out that it might not have anything to do with my wheels or brakes, but simply a condition that happens based on my position on the bike. See this article. It claims that “unloading the saddle” will stop the shimmy! Man, I wish I would have know this 2 days ago. Other articles also suggest applyling pressure to the top tube with one or both knees. I will try both of these tricks if and when this terrifying shaking happens again. Needless to say, I will also have my bike tuned up before IMLP, including a truing of the wheels and new brake pads!

I’m really glad I experienced this for the first time in practice and not during a the race. I think my previous fastest speed was about 42 mph I hit in a local rally a few years ago, but that was on my old road bike. I’ve probably never been above about 34 mph or so on my tri bike. Later on Saturday, I actually regained some resemblance of manhood when I had the courage to get up to about 45 mph! That was the fastest I’ve ever been on a bike!

Overall, I enjoyed the ride. I actually like the climbs better than the descents. The views were quite pretty despite the mist that limited our visibility to a good degree.

Stats for the day: 100.1 miles in 6:05 for a 16.4 mph average and a 157 avg HR

Saturday evening we had an incredible grill out! Some people brought meat and veggies to grill, while other made pasta salad and such and we ended up having quite a feast. It really hit the spot after a hard day. It was fun to “talk triathlon” and just hang out with a good group of people!

Sunday

A much smaller group (5) of us went out for some more on Sunday. I wanted to get in 4 more hrs to really take advantage of this good long climbs that we just don’t have any where close to the Metroplex. We started the same route as Saturday and even climbed that initial steep 2 mile stretch, but after that we headed down the other side of 271 which turned out to be really nice. None of us had been down this way, but Larry had the good point that b/c this road was a highway it should have smaller grades than the Byway, and he was right. It was perfect practice for IMLP b/c there actually aren’t any really steep climbs at IMLP. I think a 1 mile 8% climb is about as bad as it gets at IMLP, so I really wanted to practice the 5-7 % climbs that would simulate that typical IMLP profile. 271 provided just that.

On the way back S on 271, there was nice long 2.6 mile climb that was about a 6% grade. It took me about 15 minutes to climb it the first time. I did it a 2nd time in 17 minutes when I took it easy and kept my HR below 150, and then on the 3rd time (after 3 hrs of riding), I really pushed it, elevating my HR to over 160 and I did it in about 14.5 minutes. Not that much faster, but I was happy I had the mentally toughness to push a hard climb after 3 hrs of riding an 6 the day before!

One of the happiest moments in my 2 months of training occurred during the last 30 minutes of today’s ride. I was done with the climbs, and I was cruising downhill on the flats just thinking to myself that this is what IM training is all about: Enjoying the training and enjoying the journey of even getting to the starting line! I had an incredible sense of accomplishment stemming from that fact that I just put in 160 miles and over 10 hrs of training this weekend to cap off my first ever 20 hr week! And I was still smiling and actually enjoying myself at the end of it! It was one of those times that I’ll remember as a highlight of all my IM training and one of my favorite moments when I look back on this whole experience.

Stats for the day: 60 miles in 4:00 for 15 mph average and only a 148 avg HR (This didn’t include the long flat stretch from Saturday, so my average speed is slower)

This whole weekend will go a long way in preparing me for IMLP.

Fran at the start

First 2 finishers

First Female

This Saturday morning at 8am, the 5th annual Wellington Family Fun Run was held at the WAC. While I have yet to actually run in this race, I’ve always tried to support it in some form or fashion as it’s literally right in my backyard. Last year, I rode the lead bike to make sure the lead runners stayed on course, and this year I simply took some photos and videos while cheering runners on!

We were blessed with beautiful weather and an exciting finish this morning. The first 2 finishers came in almost side by side as they sprinted to the finish. I think everyone had a good time, and I look forward to supporting next year’s event.

My complete set of pictures and videos are in this PicasaWeb Album.