The Mighty Storm

Hurricane Helene rampaged through Western North Carolina a few weeks ago, drowning hundreds of souls, washing away homes, bridges, and roads, felling millions of trees, and leaving hundreds of thousands without power and water. This post is dedicated to all those who lost everything.

So many houses along creeks and rivers in this area were simply swept away-- knocked off their foundations by logs, swept into the current, and swiftly broken up into flotsam and jetsam. Many homes on sides of mountains were destroyed by landslides. If their occupants didn't get out in time, too often they were swept away too. 

The biggest lesson I took from my experience is that the meteorologists only give you a couple days of advance notice before a natural disaster hits, so it is critical that you follow the weather on a daily basis, trust the forecasts, and immediately start preparing to be stranded and out of water and power when the forecast starts to sound dire. 

One way to be prepared is to own a generator. I've wanted a generator for years, but the cost has always held me back. I've now decided to purchase one and have it hooked into our electrical panel and connected to our 1000-gallon propane tank so that it automatically kicks in when we lose power. In some ways, we were lucky: the temperature was perfect after the storm, so heating was not an issue. But in a winter storm, having a generator or other non-electric heating source will be critical.

Another way to be prepared is to have lots of bottled water on hand, and to fill bathtubs and buckets with water so that toilets can still be used. The novelty of pooping in a bucket wears off pretty quickly. Even if we have a generator, our well is on our neighbor's land, so we will probably still be without water in an outage. It was remarkable how much aid flowed in within just a couple days, but I know it didn't reach the most remote areas for much longer.

Finally, a longer-term impact of the storm has been on IV fluid availability. Apparently, Baxter's in North Cove makes 70% of the IV fluid for this country, and there simply isn't capacity elsewhere to take up the slack while they are offline. This lack of redundancy is frightening in itself-- but it's also frightening that in coming weeks, hospitals across the country may completely run out of IV fluid. Hospitals are probably realizing that they need to create and maintain the capacity to make their own basic fluids, if worst comes to worst-- just like they did in the old days.

Climate change- induced natural disasters keep throwing us back into the days of the frontier. Though we pull ourselves back into the 21st century at great cost, the next calamity is lurking just around the corner-- and it may be even worse. Be prepared!

Anatomy of a Peak Performance

I had the best triathlon of my life last month. I felt strong and smooth and comfortable in the water (I was ~300th out of 599 participants), passed a ton of people on the bike (I was 65th on the bike by time), and crushed the run (36th by time), coming in at 70th place overall.

I peaked well. And though I've caught some breaks, it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't made some key decisions over the last year. Here are 10 things that came together for me:

1. I was caffeinated. In case you didn't know it, caffeine is a major performance enhancer for not only cognitive efforts, but physical activities also. I always do my workouts and races caffeinated.
2. I was rested. I had an easy swim a week prior to the race and went on an easy run 5 days before, but otherwise did nothing for the 9 days leading up to the race except some mobility work.
3. I was uninjured. I have been strictly avoiding overtraining, which really paid off. I was also obligated to take some time out of the pool a month before the race due to a skin procedure, which helped my rotator cuffs stay as healthy as they can be. 
4. I did tempo running work at 6:15/mile pace. After a disappointing run portion of a triathlon 6 weeks prior, I realized I needed to train my body at faster than race pace so that I could get used to a faster pace. It sounds basic, but it's really easy to almost never run fast in your training, and that's a trap I had fallen into.
5. I did interval work on the stationary bike. I realized that my workouts are more intense on the stationary bike than they are on the road, because I can put my full energy and attention into the effort. And those workouts really paid dividends on race day.
6. I worked on activating the right muscles, specifically my glutes. This has been a focus of mine since I realized that most of my low back pain stemmed from me activating my paraspinals instead of my glutes. My hamstrings were also under excessive strain, leading to a few strains over the years. But since I've made it a morning practice to activate my glutes, my back and hamstrings have remarkably improved.
7. I took creatine. Creatine is a major performance enhancer and muscle builder with no real downside, and it's cheap, so there's really no reason not to take it if you are training.
8. I increased my protein intake. Other than skinny genes, inadequate protein may be the biggest reason I've not been able to gain muscle mass over the years. So I started drinking protein shakes, at least on my days off of work.
9. I got stronger. Thanks to activating the right muscles, staying healthy, and upping my protein and creatine intake, I've realized some modest but real gainz this year.
10. I wore new shoes. I've noticed over the last few years that new shoes drastically improve the way my legs feel and reduce my run times.

I also want to give a big shoutout to Hudson McGinnis, who joined me on our trip down to Wrightsville Beach for this triathlon. It was the first time I've had a bud to race with, and boy it was a blast to have him to pal around with before and after the big event. I'm looking forward to many more races with him... and any other friends we can talk into joining us!

I never realized how much we look like brothers!

Me and Hudson Goofball McGinnis checking out the transition area the day before the race