Welcome and thanks for stopping by. I'm Michael Schubert (feel free to call me Mike) and I am a Senior Application Architect, marathoner, cyclist, and triathlete in Atlanta, Georgia. Read on for more about me and my journey to earn the title "Ironman".

July 20, 2008

I am an Ironman

Mike Reilly said so. It took over 16 hours of not just battling the course, but torrential downpours throughout the day. It stopped raining for the last 9 miles of my marathon, but by then the damage had been done. My feet are more blistered than not. My bike's drive train is cleaner than when I started racing and doesn't shift as well.

It took about 40 seconds to run the oval coming in to the finish line. To hear my name. To have a crowd of strangers go wild. To know that I accomplished what I set out to do several years ago. And I tell you my friends - it was TOTALLY worth it. My feet will heal.

Full race report coming once I have the mental energy for it.

Posted by Mike at 11:41 PM | Comments (1)

July 19, 2008

One Last Walk Through

Today the transition area will become bustling with activity. Everyone will go over their bikes one last time. Transition and special needs bags will be carefully packed. In essence, the stage will be set.

I plan to get in my last open water swim in about an hour. I will then take care of a couple of matters and head back to the hotel to fill my bags. Shortly after lunch I will go check my bike and gear in. That will be it. Several years of preparation will go into the books and tomorrow will be the test to see how well I prepared.

The weather has been on and off crappy here. Yesterday afternoon brought a storm worse than yesterday morning. I really felt for anyone out on their bikes. 60 mph winds are not your friends while on a 2 wheel conveyance with just a couple of centimeters of rubber touching the road. The weather is out of my control. There is nothing I can do but hold out hope that nothing severe rolls in while I'm out there, and that anything that does roll in will move out quickly.

Posted by Mike at 6:17 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2008

Friday Open Water Swim

A massively bad storm came through right around 8:15am. It passed and we finally were able to swim. The water was not as cold as I had imagined it. The wetsuit helped with that, but I swam in some really cold water at Beast of the East and it was still code even with the wetsuit.

It was wierd being able to see the bottom as you approach the finish line. It was wierd seeing fish. During the rain delay, I talked to Jim from Plattsburgh. He told me that there are actually divers out there during the race, particularly at the two turns. They're just making sure no one gets pushed down. It's good to know that though - I would've freaked if I looked down and saw a body!

The rest of the morning was been uneventful. I got checked into the race - that took about an hour. I went through the NA Sports bling tent where you can get Ironman shirts, Ironman bumper stickers, Ironman mouse pads, Ironman toilet paper... well, you get the idea. I didn't buy anything - partly not wanting to jinx it, but partly wanting to just focus on finisher merchandise.

Pictured is the beach area around the swim finish. When you complete one loop, you run up on the beach for maybe 15 meters and then get right back in. No big deal.

Posted by Mike at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2008

Random Thoughts While Waiting on a Plane

I am sitting at gate D1, waiting to board a flight to Vermont. Gilligan just walked by outside the window. Not really Gilligan, but the pilot was lazily dragging his roll-aboard behind him toward the bus stop that would take him to his next plane. He would've looked a lot better, and given me more confidence in his abilities, had he been wearing a jacket. It's a warm morning in Atlanta, so I'll forgive him for not wearing a jacket. But he's still Gilligan. SKIPPER!!!!

Remember when flight attendants were stewards and stewardesses. I guess it was the whole politically correct phenomenon that caused the change to "Flight Attendant". Men didn't like to be called stewardesses - I don't blame them. But I think the change had unintended consequences. When you look at the root word steward, it conveys ownership and giving. Attendant just means you're there.

I want something more than just someone to be there. You have restroom attendants - but you don't have restroom stewards. I am afraid that the state of air travel will continue to decline to the point where the "friendly skies" are torturous and the flight attendants will only be there to make sure there is no poop on the seat.

Nitpickers corner: There are many flight attendants who provide great service. Don't flame me.

Posted by Mike at 7:26 AM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2008

My 3rd Grade Class

So I joined Facebook. No great shock there - everyone knows that I try out a lot of online communities and applications. Some I do to make my life easier (flickr and del.icio.us are examples) while others I just like to see what they're doing and how they're doing it. Call it the techie within.

So, you may be surprised to know that I just joined Facebook. The surprise is that I wasn't on it sooner. But it really took off while I was in grad school and most of us used Linked In for our professional network. It's only been recently because of the perfect storm of an upcoming project at work and an upcoming high school reunion that I joined.

I found lots of old friends and communities around not only my high school, but also my elementary school. And that is where this gem of a photo comes in. I am in this picture. Make no mistake about it. And in 1982, I had no idea that Al Gore would create the Internet and put my class photo on it. But he did and it is here.

Guess who I am and enjoy the laugh.

Posted by Mike at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)

July 9, 2008

10 Days to Ironman Lake Placid

I've come a long way since this cold day in January. I remember wearing layer upon layer and waiting for the sun to warm things up to 40 degrees so I could go ride.

This picture was taken a week before Goofy's Challenge this year. It's hard to imagine that 6 months ago I ran a half marathon and a full marathon on back to back days. It took a little while longer to recover than I imagined, but I am stronger for it.

Every day gets a little more real. Today, race numbers were issued. I am number 510. My number has a good history over the past 9 years. I will do my best to uphold its honor during the 10th anniversary of the race.

Taper time is going well. I am not gaining weight, but my stress level is up a little bit. I worked our for 30 minutes this morning - that's about 1.5 hours short of a good workout! Tomorrow I'll get in an easy 6 miles of running before work. It will be wierd not riding a bike for a couple of hours to warm up for that.

Posted by Mike at 8:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2008

My Peachtree Number Arrived

It's that time of year. The weather is hot. The days are long. And the packets for the running of the Peachtree Road Race get mailed. I met my goal this year of being in time group 1A. That means I've run a qualifying 10K road race in under 50 minutes in the past year.

Could I do that now? I'm not entirely sure. My training for the last 6 months has been entirely endurance based. Furthermore, my change in companies and increase in responsibilities has kept my volume a little lower than I would've liked. But all in all things are going really well. I expect to be under 55 in both the upcoming Possum Trot 10K and Peachtree Road Race 10K. I'm not going to push it with Ironman being so close (37 days from today!). This fall I will work on my speed and see about sustaining those 7 minute miles across the full 10K for next year.

Posted by Mike at 11:51 PM | Comments (1)