“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” Jack London.

“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.” Jack London.

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well." Jack London.

You may notice a theme. My friend and running partner Ben Clardy inspired me to read The Call of the Wild last winter. This led to me reading most of Jack London's works. Somehow during my undergraduate reading I had escaped this great American author. After having watched Bruce Mackey win another Iditarod, I had a desire to get out in the wild winter and run a race. The Yukon 300, Susitna and Arrowhead all came to mind, but recently here in my neck of the woods the Beast of Burden came into being. I decided that this would be my fouray into winter racing.

This is the first winter that I have run outside all winter long. In winters past I have run outside intermittently on a sunny day when the roads were well plowed, but this winter I have gone outside every day and night to run, in lake effect snow, frigid wind chill and by the bright cold light of full moon. It has been quite humbling. Running on a snowy trail is significantly more work than anything else I have ever done. Muscles I didnt know that I have have been sore and stiff. The longer one runs the more this seems to set in, and its exponentially effected by the "feels like" temperature. You quickly learn in winter the "feels like" temperature is all that matters. It may say 20 degrees on the thermometer but if the weather channel says it "feels like" 5 or -5, believe it and be ready to freeze your @$% off.

So finally it comes down to the time for the race and although I feel that I have prepared as best as I can I know that anything can happen and that is what I must be prepared for. Let it snow.
Matt

"Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner

Beast of Burden

Matt is racing the Beast of Burden 100 mile Winter Ultra next Saturday. We don't often get to see each other participate in these crazy events but I will be there as part of his crew for this one. And I'm SO EXCITED. I love to watch Matt race. He is a smarty pants racer. Patient and calculating-and this often leads to a great result. It is so hard not to start out to fast-especially when you are feeling good but Matt is a master at keeping his ego in check. He is not the guy you want to see coming up on you with 10 miles to go. He is not the guy you count out if you see him hurling at mile 60-for him that is just a fresh start. No matter what happens-I know it will be an adventure-a fun one at that. Can't wait!

Training for the Triple

Lots of people have been asking me how in the world you train for a triple ironman. Truthfully, I have no clue. One thing I know for sure is that this race will take alot of flexibility and so my plan is to be flexible with my training. I plan to train hard when I'm feeling good and back down when I'm feeling fatigued. The plan for now is to do some serious base training in all 3 disciplines. I'm terrible at keeping a training log-it feels too much like work. Usually at the end of the week I try and tally it up in my head. As far as I can remember here are last weeks totals:
Swim-9,000 yards (3,000 yards straight x 3 days-just building the mileage back up).
Bike-6 hours
Run-7 hours
I should definitely be biking more than running. However, I've been doing a run focus for 6 weeks w/no biking so I am just getting back in the saddle-and the toosh is feelin it! I did get a new saddle-the adamo road which I really like so far-but it does need some tweaking. Next week I will surely have more than 6 hours in the saddle as today I've put in 4!

Oh No!

I just rolled out of bed-0730 on a Saturday morning-that doesn't happen very often. I worked Wednesday and Thursday nights from 2300-0730-and it just kicked my ass this week. So much so that I took yesterday (Friday) off from working out all together. That is something else that doesn't happen very often. Apparently Matt spent the night praying to the porcelain gods all night. I musta been exhausted cuz I never heard a peep. He said he was up every hour. Oh-and because he wasn't feeling well-he slept in our guest room which doesn't have a bathroom connected to it. So...he didn't quite make it to the bathroom on one of his runs...I haven't been back upstairs to assess the damage yet. Our kids are home for winter break for the next 9 days-I'm really hoping this bug has left the vicinity!

So in case you don't know-I work as an oncology nurse a few nights a week. Nights work out so much better for me w/little ones-I'm usually home in time to see Ian off to school. I try not to bring work home with me as I deal w/some pretty heavy stuff. This, however, I felt was worthy of mention. I took care of a young college student who found a lump in his testicle 6 months ago. He ignored it-thought it was a hernia. (I'm shaking my head just thinking of it). Anyway, he did nothing until he was so short of breath he was having a hard time walking. Admitted to the hospital Wednesday-diagnosed w/Testicular Ca w/liver and lung mets stage 3-4 by Wed. night. Thursday morning-total orchiectomy (teste removed-prosthesis implanted) and chemotherapy to be started Friday. And to make this even more heartbreaking-the kid is refusing to tell his parents. I tried my best to get him to call his mom-and I have to admit I was tearing up while I was talking to him..."As a mom-I'm just telling you how serious this is and that your parents would want to know..." Didn't work-he is just convinced he should go it alone. This one haunts me. Came home and sat my 13 and 8 year old boys down and told them if they EVER have any changes in their testicles they need to tell someone THAT day! Tell your boys the same-please-we see this WAY to often.

On a lighter note I am so fired up for the Winter Olympics. I love everything about the Olympics. GO USA!!

My First Comment!!

I can't tell you how excited I was to see that someone had left me a comment! Especially since I hadn't told a soul that I started a blog. Angela Bancroft left me that first comment-she is an amazing triathlete who lives in Maine. Funny thing is-I didn't meet her until I moved to Syracuse. Anyway-I wish I had known her when I was first starting out in this sport. She raced Lake Placid last year and made qualifying for Kona look like a breeze. She just started a coaching business-which I know will be really successful. You can find info about that here http://angesdrivetotri.blogspot.com.

What's next

The last Ironman I did was in Idaho-Ironman Coeur d'Alene June, 2009. During the swim, I seriously had a near death experience. I made the poor decision of starting in the midst of a group of big guys. As usual, the swim start was a total cluster. A couple of big dudes swam over top of me and I was completely submerged under water. When I surfaced I was frantic and hyperventilating which made it difficult to continue to swim. There is more to that story but this bottom line is that I spent the rest of that day wondering what the hell I was doing. After all, I did not want to die doing a freakn triathlon. I love the sport but my family comes first and I seriously began to question what the hell I was doing. I think that I am still recovering from that day. I kinda lost my passion for the sport after that-call it burn out-whatever-I just wasn't having that much fun anymore. I was putting in alot of hours training and that was not something I was going to continue doing if I wasn't having fun. I decided I needed a new challenge and so I ran the Green Lakes 50K Endurance run in August and then the JFK 50 mile ultramarathon in November. I have basically been trying to figure out what is next ever since. I took six weeks off from biking and swimming. I ran alot and also lifted quite a bit. The thing I was enjoying the most about running was just putting on my sneakers and heading out the door with no plan. Maybe I'd run 5 miles, maybe 20, maybe flats or hills if I felt like it. Running has always been very meditative for me. I can just get in a zone and get lost in thought. Going for a long run feels like one big long prayer to me. I can get my thoughts organized and get things in perspective. It is my medicine. Swimming and biking had become work. I was 40 in November and I think I just don't wanna beat myself up right now. I don't wanna suffer. I'd much rather run easy for 4 hours than run hard for 1. That is just where I'm at. So...I was missing swimming and biking. I got back in the pool and back in the saddle. It felt great to just go long and easy. A little race in Virginia had been lingering in the back of my mind. It sounds crazy. Really, really, crazy. It is what I want to do. It is where my passion lies right now. The Virginia Triple Ironman. Yup. 7.2mile swim; 336m bike; 78.6m run. Must be done in less than 60 hours. That is what is next for me. This is what my season will look like:
May-Jersey Shore Marathon
June-Eagleman 70.3 triathlon
July-Ironman USA (Lake Placid)
August-100 mile ultramarathon
September-Syracuse 70.3
October-Virginia triple ironman

Keepin a record...

I imagine anyone who reads this blogs already knows who we are. But-in case you don't...My name is Joanna Chaffin. I am a 40 year old mother of three beautiful children: Nathaniel-13, Alexandra-10, and Ian-8. I am married to an awesome guy-Matt Chaffin. We live in Manlius, New York-a suburb of Syracuse. We moved here 4 years ago. Prior to that we lived in Maine-where I met my husband and gave birth to all three of our kiddos. Matt was doing his medical residency at Maine Medical Center where I was working as an oncology nurse. We actually met at a bar (shocking I know). Matt eventually completed a Fellowship in Nephrology (he is a kidney doctor) and we moved to Auburn, Maine with our first born, Nate. I was a stay at home mom until this past October when I went back to work part time as an Oncology Nurse at Upstate Hospital in Syracuse. Matt works at every other hospital in town except Upstate. Our kids are very active in school and sports and keep both Matt and I very busy. In our spare time we like to stay active ourselves. Matt is an accomplished ultrarunner and I have run a few ultras and done several Ultra (ironman) distance triathlons. This is our story...