Matt Bush

To the unending love of my life

2009-02-03T20:34:45Z

Happy birthday to the woman that has made me the happiest man alive for 3617 days and counting!

Seriously

2008-11-04T15:26:48Z

I think the choice is pretty clear.

Oh, hi there.

2008-11-04T07:42:24Z

In honor of BlahBlahBlahWhatever, seeing that lot more people are coming out of the woodwork to give updates, and some prodding from my lovely wife, I figured I'd get in on the action. Except maybe weekends. And maybe not anything that anyone would ever want to read.

Anyhow.

Let me start by saying, PLEASE go out and vote tomorrow. By that I mean: learn what you are voting for, then go vote. Don't say you're too busy, it's really worth your time. Don't say it won't make a difference; it will. Even if it's an uphill battle, every bit counts. You just never know. If you worry there's going to be a long line, take a book or a gameboy or take pictures or whatever would make you enjoy your time in line. If you can't make it to polling place, I'll be happy to help you find a ride. Capital Metro will be giving free rides directly to polling locations.

C'mon, we've got to put an end to the worthless government we have now. If you've been sitting around the last either years screaming about how this nation has been run into the ground by a corrupt and greedy cabal with the sole purpose of self-enrichment while cashing in on our spent rights, now is the time to act. No, not everything is going to be fixed this election, or probably any time soon, but the only way for it to get fixed is to get involved.

With that, it's bedtime. Tomorrow night's going to be a late one.

DFL

2008-08-22T18:25:09Z

The DFL Blog.

The tagline says it all, "Celebrating last-place finishes at the Olympics. Because they're there, and you're not."

Home again, home again

2008-07-28T16:45:04Z

We've just returned from our drive to Lake Placid, NY for Ironman USA, and it's so good to be home. After the race we went down to Philidelphia for a few days to hang with Derrick and Ali, and a great time was had being touristy, eating lots of food, and confronting delicious drinks. On Friday, we got up early and headed back for Austin. We had planned on taking our time driving back, getting home at some point on Sunday, but came to the conclusion that it would be nice to get a whole day at home to recover and a night in our own bed before heading back to work. We ended up driving straight-through to Austin in a grand total of 28.5 hours. Amy and I took turns driving, and I've come to the realization that it definitely gets harder as you get older.

About the race, Amy and I did really well, despite the astoundingly bad race conditions. A race report will follow shortly. In the meantime, shubbe has an excellent report up that covers much of it. I am so insanely proud of her. She's made light-year-length strides this year, and I'm really excited to see where she can go from here.

Now, to see about those 1500 emails awaiting me...

Dear Ironmanlive.com

2008-04-13T21:58:29Z

Hire a couple IT people for Bob's sake. This isn't 1998; yes, high-volume servers aren't easy, but it's not exactly a new problem. And it's not the first (or twentieth) time you've had to deal with this. I fail to believe budget's a huge problem.

Money spent

2008-04-03T23:30:57Z

I had been holding off on deciding about racing Spenco Olympic on Sunday until the end of this week when I had to chance to take off / change bandages in order to assess things. We took off the bandages this evening. I won't be doing Spenco. What we found underneath wasn't so good.

Hopefully I'll still be able to take a spin sometime this weekend just to shake my legs a bit.

I continually consider myself fortunate to have someone wonderful in my life who puts up with me at my worst.

Dear cyclists

2008-03-30T19:36:47Z

If you're going to cause someone to crash, please have the courtesy of at least stopping to make sure they're ok.

I don't know whether to be happy or sad that I didn't see them at the finish.

Misty morning madness

2008-03-25T12:47:42Z

This morning at Barton Springs there was misty blanket sitting on top of the water, and it surprisingly just became thicker the longer we were there. I ran into whyiron, teambaraka, IMAZBarb and OtherMark on my last lap and got to say "hi!", even doing a little drafting behind Barb. I'm really looking forward to these Tuesday morning swims.

My bicameral breathing is getting better, but that doesn't deter me from weaving a circuitous path across the pool.

Assumptions

2008-01-07T18:03:22Z

A long time ago I had someone tell me that a good scientist should discard an assumption every morning for breakfast. I was recently reminded of this while watching an excellent series on thinking about global climate change (if you have a couple of hours, I highly recommend it.) While technically I'm not a scientist by trade, I like to think that I've retained a semblance of a scientific mind.

To that end, I've decided I'm going to give that a whack: to each day come up with an assumption that I have about the world, and try to dismiss, dispell or at least have a better understanding about it by the end of the day. It turns out, this is harder than I first thought; often you don't realize that you have an assumption about something until you see evidence to the contrary.

So, where to start? Some things are too large for a single day, like, "other people are not cyborgs", or, "gods are the invention of frightened mortal men." I'll have to start with something simple.

I can still write the english alphabet in cursive.

Sweet surrender

2007-11-23T03:02:37Z

After over 23 years, I am now piercing-free.

God Bless America's Wang

2007-10-08T19:00:38Z

What's not to love about laws prohibiting the feeding of the homeless?

Congratulations sweetmonster!

2007-09-24T03:58:12Z

Congrats to you and John for your PRs at Ironman Cancun 1/2!! Have a great vacation, now. =)

Please think of the children!!

2007-09-21T00:23:12Z

Who will step up to end the scourge that is Happy Crack?!

On behalf of The Shubster

2007-08-17T21:59:13Z

Since I know we haven't talked about it much, I wanted to let people know that Amy had shoulder surgery this morning. It was an arthroscopic procedure to remove obstructions in her right rotator cuff, in this case a small bone spur and some built-up waste and scar tissue.

She had the surgery at 10am and was awake and ready to come home by 1pm. Of course, we didn't leave the hospital until almost 4. :) They kept her under observation for quite a while, and made sure she drank her full bag of saline. She's in great spirits (other than not being able to use her right, dominant hand) and is not suffering any pain so far. The nerve block is good for 8-24 hours, so we'll see how it goes from there. She'll be in a sling for about a week, so I'd expect her posting volume to be a lot lower for a bit. With luck, she'll be able to do some light biking once the sling comes off, and start running again in about 3 weeks. Swimming is still up in the air, but the guess is that it'll be at least 5-6 weeks.

She was in good spirits throughout the entire stay, and she brightened a lot of peoples' day. I sure do love that girl! =)

Opinion time

2007-08-14T20:07:45Z

Death to those that hijack others' posts to talk about themselves.

Ironman USA 2008

2007-07-23T17:02:52Z

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Ironman CdA 2007

2007-06-29T19:13:03Z

I'll keep it brief, as shubbe covered many aspects in her race report. In summary, I had an excellent time despite some unanticipated challenges.

Prior to race day Amy and I had come down to the race site in order to do a couple test swims to test the conditions and just make sure we still remembered how to swim. The winds this week had been unusually strong, and on Friday they were 10-15mph from the South. The first half of course heads to the South so this created some interesting waves to swim into on a normally smooth-as-glass surface. Overall, though, it wasn't too bad once I remembered swimming in the Great Lakes growing up and how to swim with the wave frequency. We were all pretty certain that come race day the waves would have calmed down and it would be closer to normal. They didn't. In fact, it was worse with 2-3 foot whitecaps and 15mph winds (not to mention the gusts.) By this point though Amy and I had come to peace with it and were determined to ride it out.

Swim:
We arrived at the race site around 5:00 and were there just in time for transition to open. We went in to put our nutrition restocks in our special needs bags, and put our initial nutrition and bottles on our bikes. Then, we just sort of socialized, put on sunscreen, waited in endless pot-o-potty lines and finally donned our wetsuits. Going down to the beach finally made it real as we saw the sea of neoprene-clad bodies. We walked down to the middle of the pack, said our goodbyes and then I moved at bit further down the beach towards the water.

Finally the gun went off and bodies started moving. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. It was a huge, thrashing maelstrom of bodies. Bodies grabbing, bodies kicking and punching. Bodies struggling to exist in the same space with 2000 others. The waves made things more challenging since as the person in front of you would start to crest a wave their forward momentum would fall off, causing everyone behind them to pile into them. It was a lot like driving on Mopac.

The most chaotic point of the entire swim came at the first turn: arriving there I found 200 bodies just treading water. Literally. With everyone trying to cut to the inside of the buoy everything just came to a standstill. It probably took one full minute to go the 25yds around the turn. Lots of cursing and yelling ensued.

My first lap was all about survival and I never once thought about my time. The way back in was better but still fairly crowded. Due to the waves being at a slight angle to the beach I found myself veering to the right several times and constantly struggled to correct to the left without plowing over others. (Do people eventually get over feeling like they're violating others' space out there? I'm not sure I will.) Anyhow, I swam in to the beach as far as I possibly could, swimming past throngs of people who stopped and stood when the water was still chest-deep, grabbed a hand and pulled/got-pulled out. I split my watch and to my delight it was around 40:30 (my estimate was around 43 minutes.) I jogged over the 20ft to the re-entrance area and started again.

This time things had thinned a bit and I was able to extend my stroke a bit. It was still crowded and chaotic but at least now I could from time to time find gaps and move on through. I started feeling more warmed up and better about the concept of finishing this thing. I made it to the first turn and things were a lot better this time; things were finally thinning a bit. I made the second turn and began to notice the my lower abdomen was feeling a bit sore, but I attributed it to fatigue and kept on moving. The discomfort built to soreness, and then to pain. It felt like someone had slugged me hard right below the navel. My lower abs were cramping. I still had 2/3 of a length to finish so tried to suck it up and stopped kicking, only crawling my way in. To this point I'd been picking up speed and was thrilled with the idea of finishing the lap in around 38 minutes. Now, I would be happy just to finish at all. A lifetime later I finally made it out of the water, pointed out a suit stripper, got on my back and had it off in no time. It was when I got back up that I noticed the extent of the pain; it was causing me to double over. I shuffled into transition, grabbed my bag and moved into the changing tent. Big mistake. I really should have headed directly to a port-o-potty. Now, I was stuck in the changing tent with severe cramps and had to just squat down and try to prevent a terrible tragedy from happening in front of my new friends. The johns were within visual distance but I was pretty much stuck. I sat like that for over four minutes before I had things under control enough to make a sprint. I made it.

To my dismay my five-minute visit with John only got me back to the point of being able to walk again. I headed out, grabbed the contents of my bag, somehow got my socks and shoes on and ran over to get my bike. Jogging to bike-out I ran into Amy who was looking great which brought me great joy. We both mounted and took off together.

Bike:
Over the next 20 miles I played leapfrog with Amy, stopping repeatedly for portopotties. I made a grand total of seven stops on the bike. Exactly seven more than I had planned. I took two Immodium tablets about ten miles in and I think they eventually helped. It wasn't until around mile 40 that I was able to get into my aerobars. I stand today as witness that aerobars are the last place you want to be with abdominal cramps.

To make matters worse, the left knee problems that had come and gone in the final month leading up to the race were back. Pretty much from the moment I first mounted my bike I knew this, so just did my best to keep my cadence high and bear with it. The middle section of each loop was very hilly, and there were times where it felt like someone was hitting my kneecap with a hammer, but the beauty of the environment and the amazing support of the crowd kept me moving forward.

From the time that I started back in to town from the first turnaround through the time I finished the bike time blurred. My singular focus was to just keep moving and to stay in check with my nutrition schedule, which I was able to get back in sync with after mile 30. I backed off on Gatorade by about 20% due to the cool temperatures (high of 67°) and decreased effort early on. Getting back into town after my second loop was a relief, especially since some serious chaffing had begun. It turns out that Bodyglide doesn't survive seven bathroom trips.

Went into transition, an awesome volunteer helped me by dumping all of my trans bag on the ground and handed me the things I wanted, and I was on my feet again.

Run:
Running actually felt really good at this point. My knee was still hurting, but thanks to having delt with it several times on transition runs after long bikes in the previous month I knew how to deal with it: Chi Running. As long I concentrated on not doing too much knee lift I kept the quad firing from irritating things. My speed suffered some but I was able to settle into a comfortable pace. My core muscles were trashed from cramping and my legs really wanted to be going faster but I continued to use what had become our shared mantra for the week: It is what it is.

The crowd support was simply incredible. Our race bibs had our names on it and the crowds really used this. I don't think I went a single block without hearing someone yell "Go Matt!" That helps more than you can imagine. There were also a lot of Texas fans out there; I think I heard "YAY TEXAS!" almost as much as my own name. I hooked'um horns every single time. :)

Hitting the mile 20 marker I knew I only had 10K to go so bit my lip firmly started to pick it up. Mile 21 featured a hill that on any other day would only be a blip, but today, at this point, made me have to walk it. Fortunately near the top you turn around and come down the way you came. This was a great springboard into a 10k pace. Granted, it was well below my normal 10K pace, but it felt great to start stretching out my legs again. I saw Coach Jamie out there several times, and on my last 5k he and the TxFe crew were there pushing us on. This really helped. Heading back into downtown I repeatedly said my main mantra aloud: This is supposed to be hard. Towards the end I switched "be hard" with "hurt". Both worked equally well.

Making the final turn I was able to see, hear and feel the finish line ahead of me. It was now time to use up what was left in the tank so began to sprint. Crossing the line I raised my arms in victory: 12:38:36. I had finished while the Sun was still up.

Results:

2.4mi swim: 1:23:50
112mi bike: 6:24:10
26.2mi run: 4:34:35

Overall: 12:38:36

Conclusion:
Well, this has already sprawled to be about 10 times more than I had planned to write, but I've easily left out 10 times more than I could have.. or probably should have! It was an absolutely incredible experience. Despite the things that went wrong, so many many more things went right. You can't choose the conditions for race day, especially for a race you sign up for 364 days prior, and this is the reason you go out and train on the days it's windy, or raining, or ungodly humid, or 105°. Or just plain tired and wanting to roll over and sleep. All of this is trumped by the feeling you get when finishing. It was all worth it.

Everyone asks, "Will you do it again?" Before the event I had decided to hold off on any plans until we had finished. Then we would see. It could be that I would never want to wear a race bib again. It could be that we'd go the next morning and sign up again. The reality? Absolutely yes. We aren't signing up for CdA in '08 but I'll definitely be trying another IM next year, if not two. My pie-in-the sky goal for the day had been 12 hours, and my only real goal was to finish before sunset. I smashed the latter, and knowing what I know now twelve hours will be an afterthought next time.

I'm not positive what my next event will be. I'd like to do Jack's Generic and The Austin Tri, and definitely plan on doing The Longhorn Half Iron, but for now I'm concentrating on recovering and healing. My knee will probably keep me off my bike for at least two weeks (if not a month), and for the next few weeks I'll just be doing short swims and runs when I feel like it. Well, I feel like running now, but we'll see how the knee goes. :)

Thanks:
There are so many people to thank for getting me here. It's hard to name them all, but foremost there's my best friend: Amy. Her love and support made it possible. She kept me sane, happy and healthy through it all. I want to thank my coach Andrea Fisher for her guidance which got me through this. Without her planning and wisdom I'd never have been able to stay so consistent or push myself so hard. Thank you, Coach Karen for your support, encouragement and knowledge that kept me going as the day grew long. All of my good friends and family who gave me happiness and encouragement to draw upon the entire 140.6 miles. You know who you are. :)

Some splits (bib #711). Some awesome photos. An awesome woman.

Whew...

2007-06-24T02:44:30Z

Amy and I have been in Idaho for the last three days, and this is really the first time I've had to sit down and write about it. We're here to race Ironman Coeur d'Alene tomorrow morning, and the last three days have been constant preparation for it. For those that don't know what a that is, it is:

2.4 mile swim
112 mile bike
26.2 mile run

The race starts at 7am (Pacific) and the course closes at Midnight. We both hope to be able to finish by then.

I've been writing a post in my head pretty much all week, but now I find myself with still more stuff to be done before bed, and we're getting up at 3am for breakfast. Fortunately Amy has been actively logging on her journal, and has posted a ton of photos on her Flickr page. We can be tracked during the race here.

Once I wake up sometime next week I'll give y'all a real report.

Oh, and texaspatsfan: I take back every joke I've made about Idaho through the years. This place is truly beautiful!

la la la la la la la la la la

2007-06-13T19:12:05Z

I was looking at the Ironman CdA Athlete Guide and my stomach just gurgled.

Maybe it's just gas.

Who knew?

2007-06-12T18:40:36Z

Apparently, if you leave a CD in a CDROM drive that resides in a not-so-well-cooled server for 4+ years, it completely disintegrates.

R.I.P. Cthuga MkIII.

This morning after my swim I came home to find the message

/kernel not found

On Cthuga (netlag.com's server for the last 12 years)'s console. It had been having some issues lately, and required a bit of hand-holding to boot after extended power outages and the like, and I was hoping that it would hold out until after we got back from Idaho in two weeks. The plan was to upgrade Amy's desktop machine and then use the hand-me-downs to build Cthuga MkIV, but I guess I pressed my luck a bit too far. Thank the gods that a backup had finished less than two hours prior.

I went to Fry's first thing this morning to get the absolute smallest drive I could find. They had a 200gb for $79, but I opted for the 300gb for $69. When I installed its 60gb predecessor that was considered a big disk. How time flies... Now, the fun of installing a new drive and restoring to it.

I really wish I had taken a picture of the contents of the former CDROM drive. There are currently bits of glitter (former media) all over our office floor. The largest remaining chunk was probably no bigger than a US quarter.

Journal content templates?

2007-06-04T02:22:38Z

Hello Interwebs. Nearly every day I post something to my workout log (ironmatt), and the framework is roughly the same for most workout types. My usual routine is to copy&paste the base outline text to the journal edit page and work from there. It seems to me that there's got to be a way to pre-load the journal with this templated text... but I have no idea where. There are a lot of ways to modify styles and layout, but that's about all I can find. Perhaps I'm just out of luck and will have to continue spending the 3-5 seconds copying and pasting?

Flipside tickets

2007-05-24T03:49:59Z

A good friend of mine just found out that someone has stolen his Flipside ticket. During his going-away party, before he begins the Texas 4000, riding from Austin to Alaska to raise money for cancer research, after which he's moving to Portland. During which party he was celebrating his great hosts of friends, with free beer, food and entertainment. Completely unfathomable.

If anyone has any leads on where he could obtain a ticket at this late hour (his ride leaves tomorrow at noon) please drop him a line at needticket@netlag.com (a temporary email address for him.) This was to be his last hurrah in Austin, and I'd be very sad to see him miss it.

[Update: a replacement ticket has been found, thanks for all of your help!!]

Good luck tripeeps!

2007-03-31T00:56:44Z

I know it's a bit late, as I'm sure many are already on the road for Galveston, but I wanted to wish good luck to everyone who is heading down for the Lonestar Half Iron this weekend!

My turn

2007-03-03T22:49:17Z

For those that read my journal but not shubbe's, go here for a Beorn update.

I'd really like to thank everyone who wrote/commented wishing him good fortune. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to reply to everyone individually but free time has been pretty scarce this week.