This is Jim's Blog

5K-Missed 90 Minute Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-09-05T12:20:00.000-05:00

5K-Missed 90 Minute Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K-6 Mile Fast Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-27T08:11:00.001-05:00

5K-6 Mile Fast Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K-45 Min Tempo by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-27T08:11:00.000-05:00

5K-45 Min Tempo by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

All the Best Steve

2011-08-25T12:21:00.002-05:00

By now if you haven't heard the news you must be in space. Even then that's hardly an excuse. Steve Jobs yesterday submitted his resignation as CEO of Apple, Inc to the Board of Directors. It's hardly surprising this happened given his health matters since 2004 when he took his first (of three) medical leaves but that doesn't make it any easier to hear the news. Steve Jobs is an irreplaceably amazing man who has shaped and reshaped the way we think of technology.

I've never met the man but over the years I've read piecemeal about him and his various adventures, from starting Apple, to releasing the original Macintosh to his 1984 commercial. I was probably first impacted by Steve's work as an undergraduate when our mathematics lab had NeXT computers. I had no idea how to use them but they were there.

But it wasn't until graduate school that I fell in love with the Macintosh. I had a loaner iBook from the graduate department which was the only laptop available. Reluctantly I took it but after 1 hour I couldn't put the damn thing down. It was running Mac OS X 10.0 at the time but luckily got my graduate professor to spring for the then-new Mac OS X 10.1. It changed how I looked at computers and how I worked. I was hooked. Apple had me in their palm and I was perfectly fine with that.

From that point to today I've started reading Apple related news, particularly news related to Steve Jobs. For whatever reason, the world that man lived in was not the same as the one most of us live in and I wanted to know how to get there. I wanted to know because it must have been a world full of such wonderful magic. After all, it's from this world that all our magical Apple products come from: iPod, iMac, MacBook, MacBook air, iPhone and iPad. He lives in a place I greatly desire to be. And the products produced by Apple is his way of letting us have a piece of that world that we can't get to on our own.

I know I'm pontificating about something completely off base from this blog but after reading the blogosphere and other news sites for the past 12 hours I have to express my thanks. It's all too emotional for me to be quiet about it. A man I've never met has had a profoundly significant impact on my life and I wish to say simply: "Thank you, Steve!. Best wishes to you and your family."

5K-8x400 Runs by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-23T16:37:00.000-05:00

5K-8x400 Runs by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K-Fast 5 Mile by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-21T10:46:00.000-05:00

5K-Fast 5 Mile by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-20T07:43:00.000-05:00

5K-Fast 5 Mile by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K-40 Minute Tempo by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-18T18:03:00.000-05:00

5K-40 Minute Tempo by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K-10x200 Sprints by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-17T18:45:00.000-05:00

5K-10x200 Sprints by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

It's a lot of fun doing workouts that are so short it's like doing nothing at all. Actually, calorie-wise it IS like doing nothing.

5K-Easy 3 Mile by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-15T20:45:00.000-05:00

5K-Easy 3 Mile by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K-75 Min Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-14T10:49:00.000-05:00

5K-75 Min Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K-Fast 5 Mile by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-13T18:35:00.000-05:00

5K-Fast 5 Mile by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

5K Test by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-08-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

5K Test by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

I'm Getting Married

2011-07-14T13:47:00.002-05:00

Not sure if you heard the news but I'm getting married.

Redefining Myself

2011-06-01T15:18:00.002-05:00

We're almost half way through 2011 which marks my 9 month anniversary in Chicago. As you know it's been a wonderful and rocky road. While I'm confident my move to Chicago was the right one and Devra is the right woman for me, it's been a huge year for change.

Change, as a word, is fairly innocuous. We change all the time whether we realize it or not. In fact, each day in and of itself is a change we all experience and none of us can do anything about. The change happens. Some days we approach with fear. Others with exhileration. Regardless, these changes happen and we typically take them in stride and build them into our day in the least disruptive way possible.

Over the past 9 months I've experienced close to as much change as any one person should experience in that amount of time. On the surface the change felt straight forward. Yet, over the past 9 months, the journey has been anything but. My life, as I knew it back in Minnesota, no longer exists. The active triathlete who had his entire life in control from sun up to sun down has had a very long, drawn out and painful death.

None of this was anticipated. I took the word "change" to be the benign form. How much impact could moving to a new city have? How much impact could a new job have? What's the problem with moving in with your significant other? How much extra work is getting a dog?

The answer? A LOT! A lot more than I ever anticipated. Enough change to necessitate the death and rebirth of my life. At this point, after 9 months, I feel comfortable saying that it's now time to pick up some of the pieces that make sense, leave the rest behind and find out how to become an active, healthy, happy triathlete in this city with a fiancee, puppy and a pile of great friends. Now that I've finally had my full breakdown and partial recovery it's time to find that answer.

Bike the Drive 2011

2011-05-29T08:27:00.002-05:00

Chicago is an interesting city. It's teaming with a rich and deep history. Every weekend you can find (literally) hundreds of things to do to keep you entertained. And there's never a shortage of unique people to speak with or stare at. But this weekend is Memorial Day weekend and it seems that's a uniquely interesting time for Chicago. One fun thing was the low flying fighter jets yesterday. The thunderous roar of the jets overhead was great.

Today was another spectacle. Lakeshore Drive was shut down from 5:30 to 9:30 for Bike theDrive. Essentially from 6000 north to 6000 south bicyclists owned the road. A few friends of mine and I hit the ride with the expectation that we'd ride a century. I knew this wasnt happening for myself for a few reasons but mostly because I physically can't finish 100 miles in 4 hours. What made this particularly special for me was it was the second time I'd be riding the drive. The first time was last year for the LifeTime Fitness Tri. I had a stupendous bike last year so I wanted to see if that would happen again. Plus, with Escape from Alcatraz less than a week away and being extra out of shape I was excited to see if I could survive.

My friends and I started off at North Ave (great for me since it's less than a mile away from my house) and headed north. We quickly got separated because of different speeds and expectations but John and I took point and tried to push the pace.

Ultimately it was a nice ride but it had a few shortcomings.

Why was it a nice ride? There's a lot to like about having 4 lanes of one of Chicago's most beautiful roads open to you for biking. In Chicago proper you're not going to find any better place to ride. The lake front path is nice but too windy and congested to make for any decent training. Lakeshore drive is gorgeous and you can really hold a nice pace.

What made it fall short for me was mostly myself. To be sure, there were just too many people out there riding slowly in the fast lane. Is made me more angry than not. I had to keep slowing down to make sure I didn't kill anyone and myself in the process. Understandably, this is a "ride" and not a "race" so getting mad at slow people is just dumb. What's even more dumb, though, is being slow in the fast lane. Ink of how aggravated you get while driving somewhere and in front of you is someone driving at half the posted speed limit. But they're in the passing lane so there's nothing you can do.

Yes. Very annoying! I greatly dislike congested rides for the obvious reason.

Where the problems fell on me are with my expectations I came with. No matter how I look at it, no ride is an acceptable ride unless it meets the standards I had back in the twin cities: mainly clear roads, smooth pavement, diverse geography and easy to get to. I got extremely spoiled up there. Let's face it. And it's going to take me a long time to get over it. Until then, I have to spend the time to realize that I didn't order myself a shit sandwich by moving here but instead got a Chicago style burger: good and special in its own way but not the same flavor that I've grown to know.

Week 13 Long Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-05-07T10:26:00.000-05:00

Week 13 Long Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

I love non-snowy weather. It makes me happy.

Untitled by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-04-16T11:49:00.000-05:00

CARA Lakefront 10 Miler + 10 extra at Garmin Connect - Details Not a bad trot. The goal was to burn calories and that got accomplished.

A New Study in Chicago

2011-03-31T14:29:00.003-05:00

Adapting to a new lifestyle can be difficult. Adapting to that new lifestyle in a new city makes it at least an order of magnitude more difficult. Ever since moving to Chicago and completing Ironman last year I've found my motivation to exercise wane as other life events have taken over.

Part of the difficulty I have with getting back on the exercise wagon is what happens to me every year. Affectionately I'll refer to it as seasonal affective disorder. This is a normal part of what happens and something I'll get over once the weather improves and the sun is visible more than once a week. It's the normal ebb and flow of human emotion. Granted, I'm convinced I reach far greater extremes of elation and depression than most but so far it's not something that's unmanageable.

Another difficulty is the location change. Since I'm not motivated to exercise like I used to I'm also not motivated to do much to change that behavior. It takes a lot of work to find new friends, meet up with them, and develop a habit of exercise. The problem is also exascerbated by my thoughts. In a prior life, exercising was simple. In fact it was so easy I took it for granted. Where I used to be able to ride a bike out my front door and ride in any direction I wanted for 100+ miles along beautiful, windy, hilly, scenic terrain, I now have to drive more than 30 miles out of the way just to get to a place that's reasonably acceptable to be on a bike. Where I used to run on any of a few dozen paths, mostly ones I made up, I now have to stick to a small handful, most of them with endless stoplights.

But this change isn't completely negative. Swimming is kind of an improvement. I now live within jogging distance from a 1-mile long lap lane in Lake Michigan. Also, the gym is within walking distance from my house. The lap lane there is 25 yards but at least it exists.

It needs to be impressed that these are just growing pains. It's on my shoulders to adapt to my new environment, pull up my big boy britches and accept what I have while at the same time understanding that I don't have what I used to have. What I lost was a lot of convenience which is making it that much more difficult to get out of my funk. But I'm certain it can be pulled off.

Devra and I also recently got engaged and acquired a new french bulldog puppy. These changes are amazing and I'm very grateful for all of it. Somehow I caught her in a weak moment and she said "Yes" so we're now busy wedding planning. The dog, while a great asset to our relationship, needs a lot of time and attention.

Needless to say, there are a lot of changes and obstacles in my life that don't add up to giving me time to train. It's my hope that when the dust settles (who knows when that'll be) I can return to being the active self I enjoy being.

In the mean time, I'm getting out about 2x per week to do some running and ensure I can run the marathons I've got on the schedule. So far so good.

I'm Honored

2011-02-17T19:52:00.001-06:00

Not sure what I did to deserve this nor am I smart enough to figure out how to put this on the side of my blog but I guess I've got an accolade:

www.TreadmillReviews.net

If not for my athletic ability at least I get recognition for my rantings. I'll figure out how to put this on the side of my blog but for now rock on.

To Be Fair

2011-02-13T12:17:00.002-06:00

Because of my extreme disappointment with the Wahoo Fitness receiver in the previous few posts it's only appropriate I follow with the resolution of the matter.

Last week the Wahoo Fitness team sent me a new too via express ship to my house. The moment I connected it I got a signal and it worked like a charm. Apparently as of this writing I'm only the second of all their shipments that received a faulty receiver. Such is life.

After using it a few times I'm very pleased with the ease of use and how simply it integrates with some other pieces of software such as RunKeeper Pro for iPhone. A huge THANK YOU to the Wahoo Fitness team for quickly and professionally resolving the issue I had with the Ant+ receiver I bought. It's a great tool and I look forward to the improvements they'll make along the way.

Now, it's time to get the RunKeeper Pro app up to speed. It's a beautiful tool and does a great job but there's lots of room to grow. For instance, we should be able to train according to our heart rate zones. There should be an option to receive audible feedback when we're outside the specified heart rate zone.

Not Connected, Eh?

2011-02-05T17:55:00.001-06:00

It bloody well is connected. Make it right, Wahoo before it starts raining fire and brimstone.

Wahoo Fitness Fisica Fitness Sensor Key

2011-02-05T17:00:00.001-06:00

So I jumped in and ordered a Wahoo Fisica Fitness Sensor Key for my iPhone. It just arrived this afternoon and ever since I've been trying to connect it to my iPhone. However, I get these two lovely messages:

Needless to say I'm very grumpy right now.

Week 6 Long Run by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-02-05T15:28:00.000-06:00

Untitled by jasheldo at Garmin Connect - Details

Out of Balance

2011-02-04T08:24:00.001-06:00

In as much as the resolve was made to make this week (Week 6!) of training the first where I was back on track, I wound up yet again missing more days of training than I would have liked. Something is wrong with the formula of life I'm living right now and up until this morning I couldn't put my finger on it.This morning I decided to sleep in because of all the extra hours of work I've been putting in. Both of my bosses are out on business today and since I'm caught up through the end of the month it was my executive decision to execute a 3/4 work day.The alarm went off at my usual 5:15 but this time instead of hitting snooze, I turned the alarm clock off thinking I'd wake up in 30 or so minutes to turn it off. However, the next time I looked at the clock it was 7:30 and I still felt like a bus had hit me. After taking a few moments to reflect on this, I came to the conclusion that my life is very much out of balance. Work is consuming too much time, I'm staying up too late and waking up too early. That's a formula that does not yield much success, as my training clearly reflects. So, starting this weekend I need to find balance again. It isn't clear where or how to find it but a few things are clear:

I need more sleep.
I need to become more efficient at my work so it becomes a less time consuming portion of my day.
I need to get my personal life on track.

Of those listed, I think the first is the easiest to address. I just need to go to bed earlier. If I can do that and wake up refreshed then getting to the gym at 5:15 will be a non-issue. The third item will just take time. Being in a committed relationship commands very different time management skills than does being a bachelor.As for work, I'm actively working on implementing a new system at work that will make work more efficient for everyone. That day is my personal holy grail. I'm working like crazy to make it happen sooner than anyone is anticipating. Hopefully before too long we'll be up and running with this new system.It's my hope that as soon as I can solve some of these issues that life will get back on track. Here's hoping I'm right and it happens sooner than later.

Garmin 305 vs Apple iPhone 4 (Runkeeper Pro)

2011-01-29T22:45:00.001-06:00

A few months ago I made a brave move and relocated to Chicago. On the whole this has been a positive experience and I'm glad I did it. But like all changes in life, it came with some pros and cons. For instance, on the plus side I have a 0.5 mile long lap lane in Lake Michigan within jogging distance from where I live. Also, within a half mile radius I can get everything I need to survive: food, firewood, dry cleaning and an Apple Store. I also don't need a car so I sold it - that's been a huge money saver.

But there's also the downside. I now have nowhere to bike. And please don't say I can bike in the burbs. Stop kidding yourself. The burbs are better than Chicago proper but are still too congested to get any reasonable training done. Also, if you enjoy running there's essentially only one place to go: the lakefront. It is a beautiful route but there's something to be said about variety. And no, running the opposite direction doesn't count as variety.

But all things equal, the number one annoyance has to do with my Garmin Forerunner 305. It's been my trusty companion on well over 5,000 miles of logged running and biking over the years. The watch, combined with Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center has proven to be a great tool to summarize my workout life. It's seen emotional highs and lows, been with me through my ups and my downs, my success and my struggles and always performed up to my expectations. I describe this thing like it's a friend with a soul and in a way it is. But ever since moving to Chicago it's been less and less reliable. I've reset the watch so it looks for new GPS satellites but I still have to wait over a minute for it to get signal. I'm blaming all the buildings for this issue but it's where I live. I can't make the buildings go away so I need the watch to step up its game and get with the program.

It breaks my heart that I've had to shelf the watch because on numerous occasions I couldn't get a signal. But if it's not working well I need to keep my eyes open for another solution.

And during the last week of December a solution did indeed present itself. I got an email from a vendor stating that the iPhone app RunKeeper Pro was going on sale for $0.00. For that price who can say no. So I promptly shelled out the zero dollars for it and put it on my iPhone.

After giving it a few runs I've decided it's quite a handy app for city running. It audibly notifies me every five minutes of my total distance, total time and pace. It also has no problem picking up GPS signal in the city. The app is beautifully designed and with the click of a button it stops the workout and uploads it to both Twitter and Facebook. It's also great on the iPhone battery. After a 13 mile run I still had over 85% battery left. In a word it's amazing. There's even a HRM that works with it though I have yet to buy it. It's also unclear how that would impact the battery life but if I ever decide to open my wallet for that I'll be writing all about it.

Now that I have two tools that do essentially the same thing I wanted to try them both out at the same time to see what kind of results I get. After all, if they're both getting GPS from presumably the same satellites so the information should be relatively identical.

Today's run was 13 miles using both my time tested Garmin Forerunner 305 and an iPhone 4 with Runkeeper Pro. Results from both the Forerunner and the iPhone are available for review. I started them seconds apart near the corner of North Ave & Wells. I then proceeded to run all over the west loop to the south loop then over to Soldier Field, across to the planetarium, around the aquarium, along the lake shore and finally home.

Garmin Results

Below is a screenshot of the results from the run with the Garmin Forerunner 305. It's disappointing to see the Garmin Connect service is using Bing for their maps but that's more of a problem with me than anything else.

You can see the Forerunner has me clocked in a 2:01:19 and has me ending pretty much at the same corner as where I started. Good planning on my part. Their calorie count is around 1800 calories and a total elevation change of 81 feet.

It was obnoxious getting a signal at first and I did lose signal from time to time in the city but did manage to get it back within a short time span.

iPhone and RunKeeper Pro Results

Below are two screenshots, both listing the results of the same run using the RunKeeper Pro app. Comparing it with the map above from the Forerunner you can see it's identical though it looks far more attractive because it's using Google's map service instead of that craptastic Microsoft "solution". That aside though, the two tools got GPS data beautifully.

RunKeeper Pro has me logged in at finishing the 13 mile run at the 2:00:57 mark with a total of 1900 calories burned and 927 feet of climbing. I'm assuming that's net of decents because Chicago's almost as flat as it gets.

The RunKeeper Pro app has me finishing the run almost one minute sooner than the Forerunner. That difference I believe is because the RunKeeper app is able to get a better GPS signal than the watch. Also, there's no function to tell the app to stop when you stop whereas the Forerunner is programmed to stop when I stop and then continue again when I'm moving again.

All in all, looking at these results I can say with confidence that the difference between the two is, based on one run, trivial and so I can use either one as my needs dictate.

Now if I can just find an app that'll make me run faster.

On the Fast Track

2011-01-16T17:20:00.001-06:00

Almost three weeks ago I started training for the 2011 season. It's an interesting mix of races I'm doing and decided to approach the season differently than I have in previous years. I'm combining a half-ironman training program with a marathon program. Since I have such a challenging triathlon in very close proximity to my two marathons I need to make sure I'm prepping for everything.

This is a typical week in my training life:

Day	Workout 1	Workout 2
Monday	Endurance Swim
Tuesday	Speed Bike	Weights
Wednesday	Speed Run	Table Cell
Thursday	Speed Swim	Weights
Friday	OFF	OFF
Saturday	Endurance Run	Weights
Sunday	Endurance Bike

So far so good. I'm able to keep up with most of it without sacrificing too much of my life. I know it looks a bit odd having all the endurance stuff during a 3-day stretch and then all the speed workouts during another 3-day stretch. There may be some rearranging of the workouts at some point but at least up to now it's working for my needs.

I'm now able to say taking the time off at the end of 2010 was completely necessary. I'm loving training and loving the process. Sure it gets frustrating from time to time but the burnout I was suffering from is nowhere to be found. In fact, it's gone from a loathed pass time to a wonderful adventure.

I'm tracking my workouts using either the Garmin watch I've been using for years or my iPhone with the Runkeeper Pro app. The iPhone seems to get better GPS signal but lacks the heart rate monitor and the ability to stop the clock when I'm stopped. That winds up being a big deal since there are so many stoplights and stop signs in Chicago. Hopefully this will be an improvement in later releases of the program. But for now it's onward and upward.

On Your Mark... Get Set...

2010-12-23T17:31:00.001-06:00

Almost Go! This weekend marks the end of my off season and the beginning of the training year. I'll have to say it's been a good few months off. I did a little bit of running, a little spinning, no swimming, and not one single regret.

It's strange reading some of my friend's stories and not feeling jealous. They jumped right into some early 2011 races which means they've been training for at least a month now. While a piece of me is jealous, I know for certain that I made the right choice by staying away from training.

During the work out season, many of the things in my life take a seat on the shelf because time is not a luxury. There are just too many things to get done an not enough time to do it. That means sacrifices and compromises need to be made. While there's a lot of that going on the one thing I don't sacrifice is my training. Since training takes up so much of my non-work hours, I need to fill the remainder of my non-work hours with chores like house cleaning, laundry, cooking, and other errands. A direct result of this is a lot of things I'd otherwise love to do don't get done: reading a book, simply relaxing playing a crossword puzzle, watching TV, eating junk food, etc.

As a rule I've decided to take most of the months of October, November and December off from training in order to catch up on life and recharge my mind and soul. Just like we need time away from work or school we also need time away from training.

This time away from training was particularly necessary because I just finished training for and completing Ironman Wisconsin. While it was a monumentous event and a great experience all the way around, it consumed my life for roughly 9 months. In that time that's all I did. It's all I thought about. My world revolved around it. And after 9 months of Ironman I can safely say it caused my world to crash and burn. I was as excited to be done with Ironman as I was to do it. Once the race was over I dropped exercising like the ball and chain it had become and refocused my life.

Over the past few months I refocused on my work, my relationship and my junk food eating. And I'm confident that this time off was a success. I'm happier, less healthy, more fat and, most importantly, ready to start training again. The thought of jumping into a pool or hitting the trails running or biking doesn't make me sick to my stomach any more. In fact, it sound exhilarating. I can't wait to jump into a spin class early in the morning. I'm really looking forward to being stuck in a 25 yard lap lane pool. And it sounds fantastic to start running with CARA for my winter trainings.

I'm ready to be back and ready to train.

So far I've gotten into all the races I've aimed to get into and at the beginning of the year will sign up for the last few I want to do. On the calendar I've got:

Illinois Marathon
Flying Pig Marathon
Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon

and in the queue is

Breakwater Triathlon and
Door County Triathlon.

The marathons fall on April 30 and May 1, respectively. I've then got one month to switch gears and get ready for the Escape From Alcatraz tri which falls on June 5. The Door Country tri is July 23 which gives me about 1.5 months to get ready for that one. And finally is the Breakwater tri over the August 27 weekend, another month separation.

My plan

Starting Monday I'm going to follow a 6-day per week training regimine for the marathons which will include running, swimming and biking. I'll run two days per week, swim two days per week and bike two days per week. I'll mix in weights 3 days and stretching over lunch. It'll be a subtile return to training but give me some decent exposure to all three disciplines while I build my endurance back up again.

After the marathons I'll plan on mimicking my Mark Allen training to finish getting ready for the Escape. Then, for the next few months, I'll keep building up and working on endurance and strength. That should be about it. I may add some late season races just because August seems too early to stop training but we'll cross that bridge later.

2011 Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon

2010-12-17T11:29:00.001-06:00

I'm going! Just found out I won a lottery spot.

Time for a Face Lift

2010-12-07T06:43:00.002-06:00

The gears are turning and I'm starting to get the itch to train again. And I will be in a few weeks. With that in mind I wanted to do a few new things, one of those being a new design to the blog. Hopefully this will help encourage me to keep writing a bit more as I get back into training mode.

I'll be back in a week or so with an update to the new schedule I came up with. I'm pretty excited about it and can't wait to share.

2011 At a Glance

2010-11-08T06:14:00.002-06:00

So far on the list are these two marathons. I'm hoping to sign up for a half ironman or two. Maybe even this race as well.

Ironman

2010-10-30T11:02:00.001-05:00

Let me start by apologizing to my die hard fans. I haven't made a post to the blog since mid-May. While there are scores of reasons for this, time and other life priorities made it impracticable to keep up a coherent and meaningful blog. This post will aim to bridge the gap, spelling out what happened since that last post in May, how Ironman went and what happened afterword.

The Road to Ironman

When I left the blog high and dry I had just finished the Gulf Coast Half Ironman Triathlon in Panama City Beach, FL and was evaluating my path to Ironman. It was about this time the pressure was mounting to an uncomfortable degree. From trying to balance my professional life with training and my personal life to maintaining a long distance relationship and finding the time to go grocery shopping and get laundry done, my life had turned into a game of straw pulling. There was simply too much going on and not enough time to get it all done. For the most part this isn't a bad problem to have but I definitely cherish my down time which was slipping away quickly so I freaked out and started cutting out superfluous activities.

The months leading up to Ironman were filled with their own challenges. Nowhere in my original training plan did I expect to spend some of my weekends driving or flying to Chicago. My plan was to follow the training to the letter, doing each of the workouts as they were meant to be done on the day they were scheduled. With all this unexpected traveling I had the stress of trying to train while in another city. Needless to say I didn't handle the stress well; fortunately for me Devra was very good at managing this balancing act and helped me work training into the visits.

Another unexpected challenge, and probably the biggest one from my angle, was burnout. My training schedule through Mark Allen (my professional coach) was demanding. In fact it was the most demanding training schedule I've ever done. It got me so well prepared that I was able to do an Ironman distance triathlon about 3 months before the actual event. And that's when it hit me.

At some point in July I crashed. And I crashed hard. The stress of managing my life and the training, though I did cut out as much as possible, got to be too much. To top that off I was peaking too early. I had enough of everything so I virtually stopped all training. I needed a mental break from all things related to Ironman because I was miserable. I was miserable because the exercise I loved doing so much caused me to start living my life on a minute-by-minute schedule. I hated it and it showed. I was becoming someone I didn't like so I had to make a change. That change was to stop my formal training and exercise when I felt like it. Changing my daily life from a minute-by-minute schedule to one where I choose what I do and when I do it. Ultimately that helped me keep a positive point of view and get through Ironman.

But burning out wasn't the only major hurdle I had to overcome. About a month before the race I moved to Chicago to be with Devra. As if I didn't have enough on my plate, I was spending time flying between Chicago and Minneapolis doing job interviews and the general move process. In all that I managed to land a job and make the move. It was a pretty stressful point but I made it.

Living in Chicago was a big shock to the process as I needed to figure everything out from scratch: where to swim, where to bike, where to run, where to meet up with people to do anything. Luckily Devra lives about 1 mile from the Lake Michigan shore and another mile from a 0.5 mile long lap lane. That solved the swim problem. Running was simple. There are plenty of running groups right in the neighborhood. Plus the lake shore makes for some excellent running.

Biking was (and still is to this day) the real challenge. Because of the congested roads and innumerable stop lights, taking my TT bike out from the house is veritable suicide. It's barely suitable for the road bike. Biking on the lake shore isn't an option either. There are countless people out there and too many sharp turns for comfort. The only option I've found so far (which is great as it turns out) is to drive up to Deerfield and start there. Biking from there and heading west I get to bike on more reasonable roads with a diverse landscape and lots of great sights.

So while Chicago didn't offer a perfect solution to my training needs I was able to find a very reasonable compromise and get in the distance I needed to get in.

Ironman Weekend

As I mentioned above, a few months before race day I both physically and mentally crashed. This wasn't part of my plan but it was what it was so there was no point in getting upset about it. I just rode with the flow and took the situation as it presented itself to me.

When race weekend finally arrived the only emotion I had was relief. My personal nightmare was finally coming to an end. As for the race, the excitement of racing disappeared. After all, a few months prior to that I was literally doing the distances for training. Everyone around me was concerned because I wasn't excited like a person usually gets when getting this close to a huge event. But I knew I was going to be fine. I've done around 13 marathons, ridden 100+ miles countless times and swam a 5K (3.1 mile) distance at least 4 times to this point. The only thing I was excited about was being done with this thing.

I rode up with Devra's dad to Madison since I wanted to get there a little earlier than she could and he was headed up that day anyway. He and I had a nice car ride and I was talking about my burnout and desire to just be done with it all. He said I was in a good place and as long as I was confident in my distances and pace I'd do just fine.

The whole ride was stress free until we got to the Madison city limit. At that point it started hitting me that I was about to do an Ironman triathlon and I've been slacking for the past few months. My nerves started betraying me and I began getting really anxious.

The anxiety didn't leave when I got out of the car either. For the rest of the day through everything I was doing I had the jitters all through my body. Madison had turned into Ironman central. Everything about that town was related to Ironman: the hotels, the streets, the people walking around, the shoppes. Even the farmer's market on Saturday was centered around Ironman. All this started the wheels turning in my head that this thing was real and it was happening.

After getting settled down a bit I walked over to Monona Terrace (Ironman central) to pick up my packet. The line for packet pickup was enormous and if I've never felt so alone in a crowd this was the time for it to happen. Just then I turn around and see a handful of my friends from Minnesota that I spend the past half year training with. There's nothing like smiling faces and warm hugs to take the edge off. We all randomly showed up for packet pickup at the same time. It was a great moment and part of what made the weekend amazing.

The rest of the time leading up to the race was just relaxation. Devra showed up, we went to the farmer's market, ate some unhealthy (but delicious) food, walked around a lot, shopped, dropped the bike off to transition as well as my T1 and T2 bags, visited a local tea store for an in-house tea experience, had a great pre-race dinner and slept the night away (thankfully). All this leads us to what I've been training for since January:

Race Day

For some reason my anxiety left me. Mentally I ran through this day hundreds of times from the start of the swim to crossing the finish line. In my mind I started and finished this race so many times I felt like I had really already done it. Maybe that's part of what lead me to my burnout. Regardless, this morning the anxiety left and I was just there. A job needed to be done and I knew I could do it. There was no question or concern. I would show up, do it and wear my medal proudly.

Devra woke up with me and she and I walked over to body marking where she proceeded to mark me for the race. There were thousands of athletes, all ready to take on the task at hand, and the anxiety was palpable. You could practically cut it with a knife. There were people freaking out and others just lying calmly waiting for cannon to go off. Fortunately I was one of the calm guys.

Devra walked with me for a bit until it was time to part ways: her to the VIP section, me to the swim start. I met up with some of my friends and we all made the slow march over to the swim start.

The Swim

The morning was perfect. A nice cool breeze headlined a beautiful sunrise and the start to a very long day. My friends and I were making the long and slow march to the swim start. There was so many people trying to dump into the water that our progress was reduced to a slow shuffle. With 10 minutes until the official race start for us, we heard the cannon go off to start the pros. At that moment some guy was cutting through the crowd of athletes in a panic. In fact he was moving so fast he stepped on my foot as he was pushing me out of the way. He kept yelling: "I missed my start. I missed my start."

Turns out this was one of the pros and he didn't make the swim start. After a good laugh my friends and I felt much better about our situation.

As is customary they played the national anthem. The guy in front of us was singing it and it normally would have made me a bit testy except for the sign we saw on his swim shirt: "BLIND ATHLETE". That made me pause and consider what I was doing. All the problems, all the burnout, all the time I spent training for this thing. And here was a guy getting set to do an Ironman triathlon and he couldn't even see it. The sunrise, the water, the athlete all around him. Nothing. It really makes you stop and reflect when you see someone with a challenge like that accomplish something like this. We "normal" people have all the cards in our hand and exault ourselves when we accomplish the mission. Here's a guy who is doing exactly what we're doing but with one of the biggest disadvantages a person can have. Now THAT is a true Ironman.

After the national anthem they started playing the usual start song to the Ironman: U2's Beautiful Day. My friends and I looked at each other and all had the same thought: This is OUR beautiful day.

With only moments to spare we got into the water, quickly lost sight of each other in the crowd, and found our spot. And then: BOOOOMMM. Ironman Wisconsin 2010 officially began.

There's really nothing I think a person can do to get ready for a swim like that. There was so many bodies in the water that getting into a horizontal position to swim was nearly impossible without kicking someone or being kicked yourself. The Ironman swim is as much (if not more) mental as it is physical. You have to train yourself (and luckily I did) mentally to face the unexpected without losing your head. The swim consisted of a lot of stop-and-go as I'd swim into people, swim around people and get swum into. Beyond that it was two uneventful loops.

What made it fun was when I got out of the water. As I got out I noticed my two friends immediately ahead of me. We all finished the swim at essentially the same time (yes, I was the last of the three of us). But we got to share the third transition together. It was a blast running up that spiral with them. So ended the swim portion. I consider the swim a success because I was in no way winded for the rest of my day.

The Bike

Admittedly this was the part I was most nervous about. And if I don't miss my guess it's the part most people get nervous about. After all, it's the longest part of the race by far and it contains the most amount of uncontrollable variables: the weather, road conditions, flats, other mechanical problems, etc.

The bike, other than long, was uneventful. I was smart about my pacing, remembering that I still had a marathon to run. I was also smart (at least I thought) about my nutrition. I drank plenty of the Ironman replacement drink and had a peanut butter & jelly sandwich in my special needs bag. As I was about to find out though, the Ironman replacement drink is barely more valuable than urine.

The Run

And then it happened. My perfect day started its quick decline into Hell. After a very successful swim and bike I was in the home stretch: 26.2 miles, two loops and then into the food tent I go. I've run in thirteen or so marathons by this point in my life and had no concern about this one. I started feeling great, like I do at the start of any marathon. But it wasn't even half way into Mile 1 that I noticed something was off.

My stomach wasn't draining. My stomach had so much fluid in it that I was uncomfortable keeping a slight jog. And it wouldn't drain. No matter what I did. I ruled out all the usual suspects: sodium, potassium, and other electrolytes because I was drinking the Ironman replacement drink on the bike course. It couldn't be a blood sugar issue. I took care of that with the things I ate on the bike. What was it?!

There was an aid station at each mile and I was trying one thing at each to figure it out. I tried water at one, chicken broth at another, oranges and another. I kept going down the line but nothing was working. The first thirteen miles were like this until I met up with a very smart person. He told me it was indeed sodium and that the Ironman replacement drink was crap. He gave me a few packets of salt and told me to slam those and drink no water. I did what he said, slammed the salt packets and waited.

Within 20 minutes my stomach cleared and I was back in the game. It took me thirteen miles to figure out what I should have known right away. In the mean time I got passed by all my friends and was on track to having the worst marathon of my life. But that didn't matter. I was on on track to being an Ironman triathlete.

Eventually I managed to increase my pace and catch up with a few of my friends. Some I never saw and they did indeed kick my butt. However, the one friend I met up with kept me on track and he and I crossed the finish line together.

Crossing the finish line of an Ironman triathlon is unlike anything I've ever done. The energy surrounding that last quarter mile is incomparable. There are people everywhere yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs. The music is blaring and there's large screens all over so people can watch you finish.

By mile 140.4 you've got 0.2 miles left and at that moment in time you don't feel your body any more. The energy of the crowd pulls you in. And then, in that last glorious stretch, you round the corner and see it spelled out in huge, red letters: FINISH. It's in this moment you know that 9 months of training has won you the day. 9 months of sacrificing, 9 months of emotional and physical roller coasters. Of balancing work and life with sport. All of it. It all rolls up into one moment. This moment. This moment when you cross the finish line and hear Mike Reilly yell:

"Jim Sheldon. You... are... AN IRONMAN!!!"

And just like that I have a new title. I'm a brother, a son, a friend, a boyfriend. I'm an underwriter, a teacher, a scholar, a mathematician, a volunteer. I'm also a runner, a marathoner, an ultra marathoner, a swimmer, a cyclist, and a triathlete. And now. I'm an Ironman.

Post Ironman

After the high of the race subsided I went into virtual seclusion from exercising. I've done a few long runs and long bikes but at the end of the day I'm done training. It's time to focus on other aspects of my life. I need to focus on my new job, learn a new city, and grow together with my woman. 2011 will definitely be filled with races but I think I need to step away from Ironman for a while. I'm sure there'll be more in my future but for now I need to refocus and maybe get back to my roots.

So far 2011 has me doing the IL marathon in April. Other potential races include the Cincinnati Flying Pig marathon, Door County triathlon and Breakwater triathlon. I'm going to sign up for the lottery for the Escape from Alcatraz tri as well. We'll see how that goes.

More on 2011 as it happens.

But this is what took me two months to write. An now, it's off to the next adventure.

Time is an Issue

2010-06-04T10:03:00.002-05:00

I'm starting to get into the meat of the training which is tying up almost all my time. Because blogs have a significant overhead with regard to time I've started tweeting my workouts. That way I can share what I do, where I go, and how I do it with everyone in a reasonable amount of time. So until further notice you can check out my workouts on the Twitter. My username is "jasheldo".

We Don't Start Slowly Around Here

2010-05-18T15:07:00.002-05:00

Today marks the first official day of Ironmn training. Apparently all that other stuff was just a warm up. If so I'm a bit concerned about how time management is going to work over the next few months.

Today started out with a 4000 yard swim. That's right folks. First day back and I'm at approx. 2.25 miles swimming. It was interesting too. After the warm up the main set included 30 x 100 yard on 15 seconds rest and then 300 kick. That was a hell of a workout. Remembering where you are when you have to count to 30 is a tough job.

What made it worth it was the guy in the lane next to me. When I got done with my laps he asked me when I was going to be back in the pool. I told him my usual swim days and times and asked him why. He said he enjoyed pacing and racing against me. That's a nice little bit of encouragement. At least I'm on the right track.

First Real Exercise Day Since Coming Back

2010-05-16T19:08:00.001-05:00

Not a bad start.

Gulf Coast Triathlon 2010

2010-05-09T08:14:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I participated in my first half ironman of the season. My main take away is: ouch. I'm sore in parts of my body I didn't know I could be sore. It was one heck of an adventure otherwise.

Like all triathlons we start with the swim. Devra woke up with me at 4:30 and helped me get ready. The morning was a lot warmer and more humid than I would have liked but it is Florida we're talking about. The water temp was 78 degrees fahrenheit which is the highest temp allowed for wetsuits. Being brave (insane), I decided to take this one without a wetsuit. I've never done the 1.2 mile swim without a wetsuit so it was a nice change of pace to do it without a wetsuit.

The water was very choppy race day. In fact it was so choppy and wavy we lost sight of the buoys with each wave. On top of that the undertow was so strong it stopped us in our tracks every time a wave passed by. On the way back to shore a lot of people got dragged off course. It was really difficult fighting the currents to make it back to the right spot but I managed and got the swim done 15 minutes slower than anticipated.

The bike portion was the best of the three. I averaged 20 mph over the length of the 56 miles which was amazing for me. The course was flat and fast. We were also blessed with overcast skies which kept that brutal sun at bay. Otherwise nothing was special about the bike.

The run was the worst part of the race by far. At it was the one part I was the most disappointed with. I more or less walked over half the run. The heat and humidity were too much for me to take. There was an aid station every mile with water, Gatorade, ice cubes and sponges. I used at least two sponges at every station to cool off but it wasn't until mile 5 I started to open up, cool off and get my heart rate under control. From then it was slow and steady to the finish line.

Other than a bad run the race was great and I'm glad I did it. Now I need to focus on my run and second transition and I'll be ready for ironman. At this point nutrition is my worst enemy.

Now it's time to enjoy a few nice Florida days with my lovely lady.

Here are my stats from the race. Not good but at least I finished.

First Impressions of Panama City

2010-05-07T12:49:00.002-05:00

So far so good. The area is gorgeous. I rented a condo on the 17th floor of the Boardwalk Beach Resort. It has a breathtaking view of the Gulf that my dad and mom can't get enough of. What's even better is the resort is the host location of the race. In the morning my parents and Devra only have to walk out onto the patio to see all the swim action instead of fighting a mob to get a glimpse. They can then just take the elevator to the main floor, head out the door and boom. They're right in front of transition. The setup almost couldn't be better.

The first thing I did was to stop and see my bike. The bike shop did a great job putting it together and having it ready for me for pickup. I still need to pick up the box from them so I can ship it back out but so far all is well.

I also took a few swims today, both without a wetsuit. I did a few because I want to get as much experience in the open water before race day. Today was my first open water swim of the season and needless to say it was a bit scary. But once I got the timing of my breathing down with the waves I was feeling much more confident.

Right now I'm trying (and failing) to relax, stay out of the sun and keep hydrated. Once 3:00 rolls around I can pick up my registration stuff. Transition will open up around 4:00. I'd like to get my bike over there and have everything ready to go so I don't have to worry about anything until tomorrow morning.

That's it. Here's hoping for a fast race. But won't beat myself up if it's not. It's all about having fun.

P.S. No wetsuit for me tomorrow.

Really?!

2010-05-05T20:09:00.001-05:00

My first race of the season is this Saturday and this is the shit I have to look forward to:

Not to mention this race is in FL where, lo and behold, the Gulf of Mexico has more oil in it than water.*

I'm trying to remain hopeful and optimistic but cannot help in noticing the cards are stacked against the day: thunder storms usually mean calling off a race altogether. Not having the swim - the one part I was actually looking forward to - will be annoying if that's how it plays out.

So far the only thing I'm really looking forward to is spending a few days with my mom, dad, brother and girlfriend. My sister isn't going be able to make it. I didn't extend her a formal invitation because it was my feeling with as much as has been going on in her life it would be best if this financial burden wasn't added to her plate. I'd love to have her there but want to be conscious of her fiscal well being.

*Don't get me wrong. What's happening in the Gulf is a traumatic experience and my problems would be the most brilliant of dreams for any of those people down there. My heart goes out to all of the fishermen and locals being impacted by the oil spill. It's nothing short of the utmost tragedy to an area that's already seen more than its fair share of disaster. But I also want you to know I'm not at all pleased with the way things are going for this race either.

Lazy Posting

2010-04-24T18:40:00.001-05:00

Yes, I've been bad about posting. It's felt like more work than it's worth these days. However, don't worry. I have been keeping busy. The past 5 weeks my lovely girlfriend has been in town and it was amazing having her even though it meant running around like a mad man trying to fit everything in.

Here are some of the workouts I've gotten done over the past few weeks (that I logged). They're in reverse chronological order (newest on top):

Week 13 Mid Week Long Bike

2010-04-08T18:52:00.001-05:00

Damn cold. I wish it would warm up. But it was a great ride regardless. I'm really starting to grow into this bike.

Week 12 Long Bike

2010-04-04T16:07:00.001-05:00

This is a great weekend. Words fail me. I'm just having a stupendous time. My iPad came yesterday, my girlfriend has been in town for a few weeks and Garmin Connect has totally redeemed themselves by making their site absolutely rock star. It's brilliant. Love the layout, love the data, love the extra features. My only complaint is their use of shitastic Flash for the maps but who's complaining.

Check out today's ride (where the battery died @ mile 48). It missed just over 13 miles so it looks like I logged 61 today. That's about 11 miles less than I had calced for myself so I'm guessing I didn't make the full 4 hours.

Let's not even bother with the transition run. It was horrid. All that matters is I got off the bike and ran a bit.

Now it's time for some serious refueling.

Week 12 Bike

2010-03-27T14:34:00.000-05:00

Here are the Activity Details for today's bike. I'm improving. Slowly but surely it's getting there. Time for a nap.

Week 9 Rocked

2010-03-15T15:18:00.002-05:00

It won't be possible to summarize all that was good about week 9 but it sure did end well. The weekend workouts were great and I'm personally proud of my performance.

First of all, Devra is in town for about 5 weeks which adds a little time stress but is an overall very good thing. It's great having her support around. Plus, she's not too bad on the eyes either. ;-)

Saturday I biked on the trainer for 3.5 hours and covered just over 50 miles. It was a great time. I'm glad I could go that far in HR Zone 3. It really made the evening estatic.

Yesterday was a great personal triumph too. I ran for 2 hours in HR Zone 3 and covered 15 miles! 15! Fifteen! That's just a hair quicker than an 8:00/mile pace. In the language of marathons that's a 3:28:54 marathon. I'm now less than a half hour off my target marathon time of 2:59:59. Someday...

A Great Week of Training

2010-03-05T11:40:00.002-06:00

As a follow up to a post about training lows I have a week of training highs to report. It was a great week in training and I hope this trend continues. This may in part be due to the snow beginning to melt and the sun shining most days. But I also think it has a lot to do with taking some down time to refresh my mind.

My indoor cycles have been good. My mind has remained more focused on the task and I'm growing used to being in my saddle for long durations. As long as I can tackle the mental component I'll achieve my personal goals for the race in September. I feel I'm well on my way to meeting that goal too.

My long endurance swims have been good too. This week I had a 2500 yd swim. My swim lengths are increasing between this and next week. I'll be getting to 3500 total yards by next week. I've been feeling much more relaxed in the water and always thinking about my form, tweeking this and that to get optimal propulsion to energy output ratios. I can tell if it's working depending on how tired I am relative to how fluid I glide in the water. So far so good this week.

Yesterday I had my running victory too. It was my first speed workout of the year. I did intervals of 100 yards and 400 yards. I didn't have a track to I ran up and down the road a lot. It was kind of lame but it got the job done and in a stellar fashion for me too. The workout yesterday was as follows:

Warm up: 10 minute jog
Main Set: 4x100 dash w/ 30 sec rest between each, 8x400 run with rest equal to half the time it took to run the 400, 4x100 w/ 5 secon rest between each
Cool Down: 10 minute jog

Nothing outstanding there. But the victory lies within one of those 400's. I ran the distance in almost one minute. You heard that right folks. For 400 yards I held a 4:00/mile pace. :-D That was very exciting for me.

Let's hope this good week of training continues into the weekend. I've got a long run tomorrow and on Sunday another Brick and a 2500 yard swim. Better get to Trader Joe's and buy more pancake mix. I love my post workout multi grain pancakes.

Training trends

2010-03-03T12:28:00.004-06:00

It seems every year I go through some sort of cycle. Typically it starts early in the year and usually in February lasting until well into March. That's just the nature of the beast though.

By the end of October I'm typically kissing my racing season goodbye and welcoming a period of much needed rest. During this period I usually take time to reflect on the seasons triumphs and tragedies while at the same time catching up on areas of life that have been put on hold for the past 8-10 months. It's a grand time of eating recklessly, throwing a life of routine out the window and welcoming sur-of-the-moment activities, whatever those activities may be.

This is also the time when I think about the upcoming year and my goals. It's my opportunity to think big and dream of the lofty goals I set for myself as the old season winds down and the new one comes to life.

But this downtime has some negative consequences. (Note: I suppose everything does but stick with me on this).

For one thing, it's tough to get back into a routine. Both my body and mind envelope the lavish experience of the period of low stress much like a kid welcomes a piece of candy. Having time to do what I want, when I want without needing to be somewhere to train or run from place to place only to get there right in the nick of time is a great thing. That alone makes the transition from down time to pre-season (Jan-March) a very difficult thing.

Another negative is the loss of my natural endorphines. Let's face it, exercising feels great. Exercising intensely feels even better. During the down time I don't my regular endorphine kick. As a result my mind and body start to look elsewhere for that natural happiness so I start doing things excessively that negatively impact my well being. One of those is drinking excess coffee. I would use the caffeine in coffee to replace the great feelings I get from endorphines. It's not something I do on a conscious level but something my body naturally gravitates to. I raelize this is getting into psychological behavior and all the intriquicies involved with it but anyone who's trained for a long period of time and then stops knows what I'm talking about. It's the behavior of an addict which, as anyone who knows me can agree, I display in textbook fashion. Hence why alcohol and nicotine are not a part of my life any more.

The last imporant side effect of the downtime I want to mention is the depression that sets in. There are a lot of contributing factors to this, some addressed in the previous paragraph. The observation I'd like to make is the transitiion from a goal-oriented lifestyle to a just-be lifestyle. For the previous 10 months I've spent so much time focusing on growing my stature that I greatly neglect growing in spirit and growing in mind. Ignorance is not bliss and when the muscle we call the brain is not exercised regularly a lot of areas of our life suffer. Our self confidence decreases, our congnitive abilities go down, our memory lapses, we become easily aggitated, self defensive and ultimately depressed. This depression doesn't usually set in for me until sometime in early January when my training is beginning again. I'm not fully sure how to explain it but it's a feeling of deep despair and a feeling that everyone on the planet is better than I am in all aspects of life. I want to crawl into a hole and disappear.

Right now I'm at what I hope is the end of this degenerative state. It's a terrible spot to be in and it takes a lot of friend power to push through it. I'm eternally indebted to the people who time and time again help me through the tough early part of the year. If history is any indication of the future (as a risk analysis specialist I know it's only partially indicitive) then I should be fully through this nonesense very soon.

I know the point of this blog is to share my trainings but hopefully this serves as a good read for people who find themselves in a similar spot. You're not alone in the cycles of training.

Taking a different approach

2010-02-23T09:32:00.002-06:00

The frequency of my posts has waned recently. This is mostly because it's become too much of a hassle to update the blog on a daily base but also in part because the quality of my posts simply hasn't been there. I really admire people who can balance their time so well to manage full time working, full time training, home life, updating of the blogs and anything else that happens in life. It's really amazing and something I haven't been able to find a balance to achieve yet. But I continue working toward it.

As far as training, it's going very well. My swimming is getting much stronger and the biking, after some refitting, is feeling much better. Running is also going very well. I continue to refine my running gaite and focus on heart rate training. I can definitely see the pay off already so it's exciting to see where this is going to put me later in the year.

A Refreshing Return

2010-02-17T15:02:00.002-06:00

Last week I was a mess. Training was going horribly (in fact I skipped the entire week) and I was crabby constantly. I even emailed my coach asking what I could do because I was really suffering emotionally and mentally with everything around me. He told me to shorten up the distances on the bike and swap things around if need be. He even suggested I take some time off to recoup.

It just so happened that weekend I was going to San Francisco with my girlfriend and it wound up being a great opportunity for a recharge. I did little to no training at all while we were there. The most difficult training I did involved muscling up Lombard St (approx 31% grade) twice. Needless to say, Devra hung tight making fun of me as I battled the hill.

Other than that she and I biked from Fisherman's Wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge, across it and finally over to Sausalito and back. Other than the hills it was a casual ride and nice to be out in the open air.

When I did finally manage to get back to Minneapolis I was fresh and ready to go. Stationary cycling still completely sucks. I don't think there's much to do with it. But getting a chance to get out of my element and be in a different environment really gave me the recharge I needed to jump forward.

So, with as much kicking and screaming I did about going to San Francisco, with all my griping about missing training, I have to publicly state to Devra: "You were right baby."

Something tells me I'm going to be saying that a lot for many years to come.

Week 5

2010-02-11T06:54:00.001-06:00

Based on the way this week's been going there's no need to send out a summary of each day. This week I've been suffering severe burnout and motivation problems. Getting on the stationary cycle is almost sickening. I can hardly bare to look at it much less ride it. Because of the snow and cold I've also had no motivation to get out and run. It's all become monotonous. Meaningless. Soul less. What used to bring me so much joy and happiness, recently, has become a dry and barren desert. Void of life and purpose, training this week has really hit an all time low.

I really don't know what's going on or how long this is going to last but I know is my body and mind are both working together to tell me that right now getting rest is far more prudent than getting in a workout. This is hopefully the mid-winter blues and something I'll rebound from once the air outside becomes warm and the roads dry again.

In general I'm not concerned about this lack of motivation. It's happened before. Almost every year around this time for a while I lose all desire to do anything. But I do bounce back afterword and I usually bounce back stronger than ever. I'm assuming that's what will happen this time too.

And it's not just training either. Work is suffering along with every other area of my life. I hope today is the end of this because this weekend I'll be in San Francisco with my woman and this is not how I want to be feeling during the trip.

Day 29

2010-02-09T10:40:00.002-06:00

Today was my longest swim this season: 2000 yards. It was as follows:

Warm up: 300 easy. 6x50 on 20 sec rest, 2 free, 1 stroke, 2 free, 1 stroke. 2x150 on 30 sec rest, 100 pull/50 kick. Main Set: 100,200,300,400 on base rest of 20 sec per 100. 2x50 kick on 20 sec rest.

The ladder was a big struggle. My form was failing near the end of each of the 300 and 400 but I managed to find my zone and hammer out the laps. This was a really exhausting workout but I'm really glad I got it done.

We've been getting a lot of snow up here recently and the walks to work have been very strenuous. That's probably why the swim was so hard. Today I got to work literally dripping in sweat. I think this upcoming weekend off will be more needed than I thought.

Day 27

2010-02-07T13:34:00.002-06:00

First off, I need to send a shout out to my brother.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!!!

My brother has his birthday on Super Bowl Sunday. How cool is that?

Todays workout was crazy. It's my first BRICK of the season and much more than I anticipated: 3 hours on the bike, 5 minute transition, and 30 minute run. No land-speed records were set today but man were a lot of calories burned. I feel absolutely fantastic too! I just love that feeling of accomplishing something huge. According to the HRM I burned roughly 5000 calories. I'm not sure that's anywhere near accurate but I'll take it. That's an impressive number.

Day 26

2010-02-07T13:30:00.002-06:00

Todays run was great. I needed to be around friends and that's exactly what I got. Interestingly enough the splits were negative but I didn't get any data about the per mile pace. I used to get that but not any more for some reason. Maybe it's time to get that Forerunner 310XT. If they ever go down in price that is.

I had a wonderful time with my friends. One of them even had cookies for me. :-D

Day 24

2010-02-04T16:20:00.001-06:00

I'm nearing the end of month one. Amazing. And I'm in such better shape than when I started it's hard to believe. Today's bike was a 1:50 indoor cycle in zone 3. What I find fascinating is how much a zone 3 bike takes out of you. Literally I was dead to the world all day today. In general I'm good with that because I burned more calories before most people wake up than they do in an entire day. But it definitely makes for a very long work day.

Day 23

2010-02-03T17:54:00.001-06:00

This was a very nice run today. Felt light and smooth. My left leg around the IT band felt strange so I'm going to spend some time working on the hip flexors/extensors and foam rolling when I'm done with weight lifting this evening.

Day 22

2010-02-02T19:02:00.001-06:00

I had a nice swim this morning. 1500 yds total. It was broken up by as follows:

Warm up: 200 moderate mixing up strokes, 3x50 on 15 sec rest. Main Set: 100,300,500, on base rest of 15 sec/100. 4x50 swim on 30 sec rest. Warm down: 50 easy.

The swim was great. I felt a bit sluggish on the 500 but the 4x50's afterword felt nice and smooth. I can definitely feel myself building back up to where I was but it's still going to take a while.

Todays bike was much better than the same bike last week. I had a Cliff Bar while riding so I was able to replenish some nutrients while still keep up a decent clip. No sugar crashing this time around.

Day 20

2010-01-31T20:05:00.001-06:00

Today's bike was pretty good. Another good day of balance between the glute muscles and pushing and pulling on the pedals.

2.5 hours is still a long time on the bike and keeping my focus is difficult. When the weather improves and I can get outside I'm sure things will be much better. Until then this is good practice in patience and focus.

Todays swim was great. The pain in my left shoulder was gone. I'll definitely stay conscious of it but it was nice to feel smooth in the water.

Day 19

2010-01-30T20:28:00.001-06:00

Today I wasn't very motivated to get on my butt and hit the trail. Originally I was going to run early in the morning but due to the unpleasantly cold weather I waited around until around noon when the temps reached their hight for the day to hit the trail. In the morning instead I decided to cook the weeks meals. I made homemade chicken noodle soup and hobo soup. They both turned out splendid.

As noon got closer I was losing my motivation to hit the trail. Not sure what my deal has been recently but doing anything has been more of a struggle than I would like. I knew if I was going to get this run in I'd have to do it far away from where I could easily escape so I decided to run around the lakes. This wound up being a wise choice because otherwise I would have curled up in a ball on my couch and drank coffee all day.

The run was nice except for my obnoxious HRM. In the first hour it kept misreading my heart rate because of the cold weather. It was so cold I couldn't sweat so it would read my heart rate around 165 bpm one second and then about 3 seconds after that I would be down to 130 or so. Completely sporadic. I decided to block it out until I got done which turned out to be the wise move. Sadly, I missed my goal of 13 miles in the two hours by 0.08 miles. I'll get it next time.

Day 18

2010-01-30T20:20:00.001-06:00

Nice little tempo swim. Nothing much to speak of except my left tricep and shoulder started to ache near the end of the tempo swims. Something I definitely need to keep an eye on.

Day 17

2010-01-28T05:34:00.001-06:00

I'm still extremely exhausted. I got about 30 minutes into the workout and just can't stomach doing the remaining hour. I need to keep my HR in the 129-149 range and in the 30 minutes I did I struggled to keep it near 130 with it lingering around 124 most of the time. I think it's time for some R&R.

Day 16

2010-01-27T19:09:00.001-06:00

I finally had to cut a workout a bit short. I was so wiped out I couldn't weight lift after my 1.5 hour run. But I did manage to get the run in. For the run I had to treadmill it because wind chills were around -18°F which is not something I felt like doing. Unfortunately I forgot my Garmin at home so there's no record of my having done it. Guess you'll have to take this one on faith.

Instead of weight lifting I downed two Chipotle burritos with room to spare. A fair tradeoff I'd say.

Day 15

2010-01-26T06:34:00.001-06:00

I didn't sleep well last night (what else is new?) but still managed to drag myself out of bed this morning for the days swim.

Warm up: 100 swim. 4x50 on 30 sec rest. Main Set: 1x700 on 2 min rest, 3x100 on 10 sec rest. 6x25 kick on 20 sec rest. Warm down: 50 easy.

The 700 was a challenge but I'm feeling the endurance and smoothness coming back. After a 2 minute rest I hammered out the 100's and they felt fantastic. My form and stroke were both strong and my feet felt almost in perfect rhythm with the flow of the water.

This evening's bike was a killer. Getting my heart rate into zone 4 is more challenging than I remember. I had to jump the bike into the big front ring and pedal with a lot of force for about 10 minutes to get into zone 4. Then I had to stay there for another 55 minutes. Let me just say that this is no simple task. I'd write more but am completely demolished from the bike. I have got to eat. Until tomorrow.

Day 13

2010-01-24T20:56:00.001-06:00

In order to get in todays swim (300 swim, 300 pull, 300 kick, 100 cool down) I bought my woman a massage. While she was getting pampered I was pumping out the laps. The swim was good. It was at Life Time Fitness in Minnetonka. The luxury club that costs a monthly fortune to attend. But spa guests get in for free. Seeing as my woman (and I kind of) were spa guests we got in for no charge. The massage cost me roughly $100 but still it was worth it.

After my woman [sadly] left back home for Chicago I hopped on the bike for my 2 hour spin. This was actually great today. This was my first time on the new Fi'zi:k saddle and it was great. No numb body parts. Just a sore butt on the sit bones. Exactly what was needed. I'm pumped to try this out. I can probably stand for a few adjustments but still it was a much better ride than that crap saddle I was riding in.

Day 12

2010-01-24T20:52:00.001-06:00

This was an interesting long run. My woman was in town from Chicago so she and I met up with some friends of mine that she already knows and we hit the lakes. My friends went an hour but I had an extra half hour to go so I pumped out Lake Harriet twice.

It generally isn't a big deal but there was freezing rain so it made for quite an adventure. No one twisted an ankle or got hurt otherwise but I did manage to see a lady slip and fall into the snow banks. She didn't get hurt so I felt like it was okay to laugh at her. I would expect the same from anyone if I were the one who fell.

Day 11

2010-01-22T06:59:00.001-06:00

This was a really tough tempo swim. 1000 yds total as follows:

Warm up
100 easy swim/100 pull/ 4x25 on 30 sec rest

Main Set
3x200 fast broken at the 50's for 15 sec all on rest of 1 min

Warm down
100 easy

It was the main set that broke me. I thought what I'd do was take the 50's as hard as I comfortably could. By the end of the first 200 I wanted to pack my bags and call it a week but just as I convinced myself to step out of the pool another thought popped into mind. It was a saying I like to say to myself but usually in the heat of the moment forget about:

Pain is weakness leaving the body.

It was at that moment I decided to fight the desire to hop out of the pool and battle through the pain. And I'm glad I did. The rest of the swim was horridly painful but in the end I feel a lot stronger and better for it. Here's to the weekend.

Day 10

2010-01-21T06:21:00.001-06:00

I had a case of insomnia this morning so decided to kick the day off with my aerobic spin. My mind wasn't there. Neither was my motivation. But I got it done and can look forward to the rest of the day. Especially the 50 minute tempo run after work. Here's hoping the work day goes smoothly.

Got the tempo run done. Just over 6.5 miles in 55 minutes. Not half shabby. What I need to find out is how to get that distance in around 45 minutes. Now that would be a real trick.

Day 9

2010-01-21T03:48:00.001-06:00

Nice 1 hour aerobic run. This time it helped clear my mind. I've been worrying a lot recently. Not about anything in particular. Just life in general causing a lot of angst. I wish I could pin point it.

If I had to guess it would be general dissatisfaction with my job, where my professional life is right now, the fact that for my education, experience and position I'm undercompensated and as far as mathematicians go, according to the Federal Department of Labor Statistics, I'm being paid in the lower 10%. It makes me feel both angry and fearful. At least I have exercise to help take care of some of that until review time.

Regardless, here's the run I did today. It was a bit chilly on the way out but much more comfortable on the way back.

Day 8

2010-01-20T06:05:00.001-06:00

Yesterdays workout was a bit messed up. I swam the 1500 yds in the pool in the morning but had to run to the auto repair shop to pick up my car. I even somehow managed to keep a sub-7:00/mile pace running there too. That was a lot of fun. But the run really messed up my spin. I went home to spin and gave up after 10 minutes. Maybe I'll do the spin today.

On more fun news the car works great. I'm $1,000 poorer now but it definitely could be much worse.

Day 6

2010-01-17T09:19:00.001-06:00

2.5 hour spin. I'm heading to the gym right now for the swim. Should be fun.

The spin went very well. Good balance of glute muscles and quads. That's amazingly encouraging. Got to keep this trend going.

Day 5

2010-01-16T14:11:00.001-06:00

Today's long run. I really enjoy this route. Today I started at the club and instead of following the regional trail out to Excelsior and Lake Minnetonka and I originally planned I decided to run it the other way to Excelsior Blvd. From there I picked up the Cedar Lake trail and followed that through the calm and peaceful neighborhoods in St. Louis Park toward downtown Minneapolis.

It was a beautiful day with nothing but the sun keeping me warm and being a part of nature. There's something about running along railroad tracks that's really peaceful. Not sure what that is but today, from the moment I started until I was done and even past that I've been feeling very spiritually connected. Today is a great day.

Day 4

2010-01-15T07:06:00.001-06:00

Today's end-of-week workout was a nice short 500 yd tempo swim. It took me literally 10 minutes. It was a 200 yd warm up followed by 8x25 yd sprints on 45 sec rest and a 100 yd cool down.

At the end of the day, not a bad first week. Nice and easy entry back into the game. This weekend I've got my work cut out for me. Saturday won't be too difficult with a 75 minute easy run in Zone 3.

Sunday is another creature all together. I need to figure out how if I want to turn this into a brick or not. It's a swim & and bike but clearly cannot do the swim at home and ride my bike afterword. Likewise, I'd like to spin on my bike but cannot take it with me to the gym. And I cannot fathom spending 150 minutes in the stationary cycle room listening to my iPod. I'll get it figured out one way or another.

Day 3

2010-01-14T06:28:00.001-06:00

90 minute bike today. I survived. This is definitely my weakest link. Can't wait for my new saddle to come in. Another season on this one (Bontrager Race X Lite) is almost horrid to think of.

Here's todays tempo run. Ironically I ran exactly the same distance I did yesterday but 5 minutes quicker and in zone 4. So that's all 1 higher HR zone saves me? 5 minutes every hour? Guess I never knew that. On a more fun note I saw a deer in the trail while I was running. It was peeing right on the trail. Classy.

Day 2

2010-01-13T20:53:00.001-06:00

A little 50 minute Zone 3 run (née, jog) and some weight lifting. Not a bad workout. I have to keep reminding myself it's early and I took some serious time off.

The First Day

2010-01-12T18:49:00.001-06:00

Well, technically yesterday was the first day but it was a scheduled day off so nothing to report there.

Today was an aerobic swim in the AM and a tempo ride in the PM. The swim, a total of 1000 yds, was very easy. Welcomingly easy in fact.

The bike was another story. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the bike is my weak link. I'm not olympic swimmer but am fairly good at it. And running is my forte. Biking I do because I have to and compound that with some horrible muscle imbalances and it's simply dreadful. Fortunately my glutes are leagues better than they were this time last year but I've still got a long way to go to be efficient. Today's bike was a 60 minute tempo. Not bad all in all. Can't wait to ramp things up.

So Much For That Plan

2010-01-10T07:25:00.001-06:00

You ever have those days where you wake up and you just know some strangeness is going to go down? Take Mondays for instance. Monday, like any other work day, involves all the usual prep work, you then get to the office, do your stuff, come home and call it a day. However, this particular Monday, as your planning out your day, you notice there's no hot water for the shower and your house has mysteriously moved 10 miles further from the office. These things aren't necessarily bad but they definitely take the "ordinary" out of the day.

Such is the case with 2010 so far. I've had the plan to follow the Tri-Fuel 36-week Ironman training program with some of my friends to get ready for Madison this year. As of a week ago that got thrown up on its head. Thanks to the overly generous people at HeadSweats (and my woman) I have been given a comprehensive Ironman training program with a personal trainer through markallenonline. There simply aren't words to describe what kind of amazing gift this is

It does however leave me a bit flummoxed. Prior to this wonderful gift I had all of 2010 planned out from beginning to end. I knew the races I'd do, my entire workout regimen, where I'd go to do what workout, what time to get up in the AM, etc. It was very static and predictable. Things we human beings enjoy having: predictability. It adds comfort and takes stress away. Now it's all up in the air. Fluid. Dynamic. Ever changing. Unpredictable.

And now my race schedule is a bit off. I had my first race (a sprint tri) being in early June. Now, because of the new training I'm schedule for a half IM on May 8. Clearly not around here because it's not a 1.2 mile waddle on the ice, 56 mile snowmobile ride and 13.1 mile ski event. It's down at Panama City Beach, FL. Though the added expense isn't something I'm looking forward to, my woman will be able to go and I'll be able to visit with my parents on the following day, May 9, which coincidentally happens to be Mother's Day.

This new plan starts Monday. Today I'm getting a VO2 test done and hopefully buying a new 130mm stem for my bike (doubtful but we'll see) and a new saddle because mine is a POS.

Megabus Offers Free WiFi

2009-12-30T10:55:00.001-06:00

That's pretty damn cool. I'm posting this from the bus right now.

Christmas Day Running

2009-12-26T12:51:00.001-06:00

I wish I had a camera for this one. We were getting a literal blizzard Christmas day. The roads were a complete mess with the snow falling faster than it could be cleared by the large county plows circling the major roadways. In their efforts the plows managed to keep the roadways clear but the shoulders suffered the consequences. They were covered by a tall mound of dense snow so any road around was down to strictly two lanes. The snow itself was the moist heavy snow you get when the air temp is just above freezing. Needless to say, the conditions were dangerous. What's a guy to do on a day like this?

Go running of course.

I ran my typical 6 mile mid-week route; however, today it was anything but typical. When I stepped outside it was immediately clear I was going to have an adventure whether I wanted one or not. The snowflakes were huge and heavy. In fact, they actually kind of hurt when they hit my face. They especially hurt when they crashed into my eyeballs. Try as I might there was no avoiding this. All I could do was laugh it off as my body got attacked by these relentless white monsters.

After pulling out of the driveway it was clear that each step was going to be a challenge. In my continued attempt at forefoot running I made it clear to myself that I would in no way let my heel land. This meant the surface area with which my foot impacted the ground would be reduced and in fact I'd be almost sliding the front of my foot to with each step. It seemed injury was inevitable but I didn't care. I was using proper form by running tall and landing appropriately. If I got injured then I'd face that devil when he presented himself.

Because of the lack of shoulder on the roads I was constantly running right in the middle of traffic. Sadly it wasn't as much of a challenge as I thought. No one swerved or lost control of their car and no plows came in my direction when I was running so I didn't get a chance to practice jumping out of the way. The adventurous side of me isn't getting much to do. Maybe next time.

By the time I got back home I was not only injury free but completely soaked by this dense snowfall. This reaffirms my notion that forefoot running is the way to go. Barefoot running is probably the ultimate way to go but this time of year doesn't really condone that kind of thing.

Until the next adventure.

Born to Run

2009-12-20T13:40:00.001-06:00

If you're an endurance athlete of any kind you owe it to yourself to read this book. The pace of my 2010 training has just changed as well as my racing food.

An Uphill Battle

2009-12-20T08:20:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I decided to get back on the exercise wagon and see what a few months of mainly idle time has done to me. By idle, I mean with respect to cardio. I've been strength training and doing yoga as a way to try to at least get some form of exercise.

The verdict?

2010 is going to be a serious uphill battle.

For my workout yesterday I did 30 minutes of core, swam for 45 minutes (2100 yards total) and joined an hour long spin class. Yoga was on the itinerary too but I was to full of endorphins after all that to sit in yoga.

While I did make it through the workouts I had nowhere near the power nor the endurance I had at the end of the 2009 season. I've lost a lot; however, this gives me a great opportunity to see the bright side of things: There's a lot I get to work on to get back.

Part of my goal with taking the time off was to have exactly this happen. I've been in pretty decent shape for quite a while and forgot what it was like to be out of shape. I was losing sight of why I was doing all this exercising to begin with. It just became a normal part of my life. The endorphin rush wasn't exciting any more. The workouts started to become major stress factors. It was all becoming too much. That's when I decided to step away for a bit, let my muscles atrophy and my conditioning deteriorate to whatever point a few months would take them. And so now, today, a day after the workout I'm waking up to something that made me laugh for a few minutes this morning. Something I haven't had happen in a very long time.

My shoulders are really sore from the swimming. HAHAHA. Parts of me ache that haven't ached in a very long time.

So, to that end: Mission accomplished. Real training begins January 4 (or 5 because I'll be on a bus on the 4th). The uphill battle is just over the horizon now.

Team Hammer

2009-12-17T18:04:00.001-06:00

As part of my most recent Hammer Nutrition auto shipment (which made me part of Team Hammer BTW), they sent me this nifty green tee-shirt at no additional charge. I asked the sales rep if instead of the shirt they'd send me a free 54cm 2010 Cervelo P3 Carbon with deep dish tubular Zipp Wheels. As fate would have it they don't give out free bikes. Oh well, it was worth the try anyway.

Since I'm here writing and you're seeing a very up-to-date picture of me (assuming you're reading this on or around December 17, 2009) you may have noticed I've gained some weight in a bad sort of way. It's nothing to be alarmed about. I'm perfectly healthy as far as I know. I've been trying to add some fat to my bones by indulging heavily in the holiday festivities. The whole point is I want to be at about as rock bottom as I can get before beginning my training officially for Ironman Wisconsin. The idea is over the past few years I've been in generally good enough shape to run a marathon on almost any given day of the year.

In an effort to make the 2010 journey toward Ironman even more meaningful I wanted to put myself in a position to have to work hard to get to the goal. This is part of my attempt to do just that. The other part is the mental aspect. Training takes a severe mental and emotional toll. By taking time off it essentially recharges the battery. Something I've been needing for a long time.

In just about a half month me and the rest of the Iron10 team will be starting out from scratch and building ourselves up to Ironman. It's going to be a long and trying road but it'll be an exciting adventure. I'll be sharing the highs and lows with you here as I'm sure there will be plenty of both if history is any sort of teacher.

Mac Tip of the Day

2009-11-29T18:28:00.001-06:00

There's nothing like going to watch a movie on your Mac only to find the movie's been encoded in Microsoft's proprietary WMV format. To view a movie in that format you can download a QuickTime plug-in that recognizes and translates the WMV codec. The advantage of this is it's simple. The disadvantage is you still have your movie in this clunky proprietary format and depend on a 3rd party solution to continue watching the movie.

Alternatively, you can use the free software HandBrake to convert your WMV file to the open MPEG-4 (MP4) standard using the industry standard H.264 codec which is natively recognized on the Mac in QuickTime. This leaves you free and clear to watch your movies without the need to install a plug-in.

Ran a 5K in the New Shoes

2009-11-27T18:57:00.001-06:00

It felt great. I'm excited to see where this goes.

The New Shoes

2009-11-23T07:13:00.001-06:00

Kind of strange to actually call them "shoes" but that's what I'm using for the time being. I still have my heart set on getting a pair of Newtons but until then these will have to do. I plan on running a 5K in them this Thursday but after yesterday's mile I may have to rethink that decision. My calfs are killing me.

Going [almost] Barefoot

2009-11-22T09:20:00.001-06:00

I'm really having a difficult time choosing my next pair of shoes. The battle is between a pair of Newton Running Gravitas and the Vibram FiveFinger Sprint.

I went to a local running store yesterday with the intention of purchasing the Newtons. I've wanted a pair for such a long time and after testing out a pair I found they do exactly what I need my next pair of shoes to do: encourage me to run on my forefoot which causes me to strike the ground under my hips and push off using my glutes. This sounds like a simple thing but I've been running with incorrect form for so long that it's been a near insurmountable challenge to change my stride and gait even though I know it's not proper. In general change never comes easy but this is much harder than anticipated.

The drawback on the shoes was the $175 price tag. Being in the pricing business and understanding a bit about revenues and profits I need to see some serious facts about this companies profit per shoe before I pay that kind of money. Yes, we want people to be successful and yes companies are in business to make money. Yes, they need to fund their R&D and cover their overhead but if they're making 50%+ gross margin per shoe, that's unacceptable bull$hit and will not be tolerated. That's fleecing.

After chewing on my heart for a few moments I scanned the store and noticed the Vibrams. Intrigued by this ridiculous looking (dare I even call it) shoe I had to try a pair on and give it a go. After jogging around a bit I noticed these shoes also encouraged a proper running gait. Though not as obvious as the Newtons I could still accomplish the same thing in these with the added benefit of seeing what it's like to run pretty much barefoot. This would encourage my body to strengthen the ankles and foot muscles in ways shoes otherwise wouldn't promote.

The Vibrams are still astronomical in price for what they are: $80. But on the flip side I could get two pairs for less than one pair of Newtons while at the same time whetting my appetite to see what barefoot running is all about and leaving the mystery of the Newtons open to me for another day.

After a long and difficult night thinking about this I decided it's going to be the Vibrams. This'll definitely be an experience and one I'll be happy to report on. They're definitely not winter shoes and being at the start of winter they're going to get a lot of treadmill work. Something tells me by the construction of these things I'll be able to get more than 400 miles out of them before they need to be retired.

The Not-So-Accidental Accidental Half Marathon

2009-11-04T14:20:00.001-06:00

This past weekend was Halloween weekend here in the states and as of a few years ago a new Halloween tradition was set in Minneapolis. That tradition is to run the Monster Dash half marathon despite the fact that Anoka, which is in the northwest burbs, is the Halloween capital of the world.

This detail aside, the Monster Dash is really the event to do. Thousands of people as crazy as I am line up along the north end of Lake Harriet and pound out 13.1 miles. As fate would have it, I just happened to be doing a 13.1 mile training run that day and I also coincidentally happened to be doing it around the lakes so timing was perfect. Of course I provided my own assistance but it was still fun to run with a group of people instead of just by myself.

A lot of fun was had by all and I did get to run with some friends which was a blast. What made it great was I had negative splits the whole way. I don't do that too often so it was nice to see it happen.

Until the next event (that would be Thanksgiving day when I'm doing a 3.1 mile training run. Not sure where I'll do it but I haven't trained downtown in a while...)

How Wonderful of POM Wonderful

2009-10-23T17:06:00.001-05:00

Many thanks and much love to my friends at POM Wonderful (@POMonline if you're a Twitter fiend) for the samples. I just got them and they're as excellent as I remember. And healthy too. Check out the research on pomegranate juice. Yes, I realize the link is at the POM Wonderful website and I do realize no company would put scathing remarks of their own product on their website (Microsoft of course being the exception because they sell Windows and Windows, as everyone knows, is a complete steaming pile of crap). But seriously. Other than an incredible amount of [natural] sugar, what have you ever read that's negative about pomegranates?

Huh? I can't hear you? Nothing? Yes. That's right. Nothing. As long as you get it in your mouth and not on your clothes (which it will instantaneous stain and ruin), pomegranates are one of natures super fruits.

BTW, if you're interested in sponsoring an athlete, it just so happens I'm currently available for sponsorship and am training for my first Ironman triathlon — Ironman Wisconsin in Madison on September 12, 2010. See how great I look next to a bottle of POM. :-D

The Munger Trail Almost-Century

2009-10-20T18:58:00.001-05:00

This past weekend some friends and I attempted our last bike ride of the season before retiring our bikes for the winter. This adventure took us to the Willard Munger Trail north of the cities. And other than a few bumps in the road it was a spectacular day. You almost couldn't ask for better.

The south-most trail head, in Hinckley, is the closest point of the trail to the cities and that's about a 1.5 hour drive on clear days — and days where 35W isn't torn to shreds between the Crosstown and downtown Minneapolis. Lucky for me I got to take the scenic route to Hinckley which also turned out to be the long way.

No matter. After the little detour on Hiawatha I got a chance to hop back on 35W and resume the day. It's a good thing I left at 6:00 or else traffic may be bad. One observation I did make on the drive north was on the southbound lane. I noticed the highway had been reduced to one lane but that didn't bother me. I wasn't on that side of the highway. And at that time of day it didn't even cross my mind that I'd be on that side of the highway coming back.

At about 7:30 I reached Hinckley and just before getting off the highway I got a txt from Elizabetsy Brownderstone: "Just getting on the road!"

"Hmmm..." I thought. Interesting txt. Especially since they live in St. Paul which is NOT a 30 minute drive in as much as it's an 80 minute drive. Long story short, I had the opportunity to visit with a few friends who did show up on time while waiting for the others. At the end of the day this turned out to be a good thing because it would have been too darn cold to ride at 8:00. The frost was melting in the sun and as it dripped off the low hanging signs I knew this was all for the greater good.

When everyone arrived we quickly got everything together and hit the trail.

Because of the odd fall, we didn't have a brilliant display of colors like I had hoped but it was still beautiful in its own sense. There was still plenty of fall colors to see along the way. Plus, the rivers we crossed added to the natural beauty all around us.

The only problem I had on the bike was a slight failure of equipment. As it turns out, my shoe booties and biking gloves are not as windproof as they bill themselves to be. Luckily my brother-from-another-mother Karl came to the rescue with 1¢ sandwich bags for my feet and toes. I kid you not. I wore sandwich bags in my shoes and over my gloves and they provided more warmth and protection than the $45 gloves and $50 shoe booties. Needless to say, those got promptly returned.

The rest of the ride was pretty straight forward. Only Elizabetsy and I made it 40 miles out and back for an 80 mile round trip. But honestly I think everyone else came with the idea they'd do 25 out and back for 50 total. Regardless of the distance and despite the fact that no one made the full 100 miles, we all had a blast. As far as I'm concerned that alone made the ride a complete success. Quality time with friends far outweighs any illusion of an arbitrary goal set for a fun ride. The only "goal" should be to have fun.

When everyone was done we headed over to Tobies for some post ride recovery and it was home from there.

Oh, I almost forgot. The ride home. Well, turns out traffic is much more dense in the evenings. Especially on the weekends and especially in the direction of a city. Any sort of a biker's high I had going into that drive was completely ruined by that horrid traffic. But I lived and am ready to fight another day.

Here's the ride we did. The next time I take this trail on it's Duluth or bust.

A Little Breather

2009-10-14T17:49:00.001-05:00

I know it's been virtually forever since I posted an update. Rest assured I am still around and kicking. My training is in a low right now as I spend my time recovering from the season we just finished. For the time being my fitness consists of running from time to time, strength training and stretching.

As the season starts to pick up again at the beginning of the year I plan on posting more frequent but shorter posts. Time won't be a luxury like it is right now. Until then, I'll post here from time to time when something interesting pops up.

Less is More

2009-09-06T10:01:00.001-05:00

I was recently given this advice and it looks like I have no choice but to stick to it. Today's goal was a 19 mile run but instead I made it about 3. My right foot is hurting something fierce today. Looks like this week is going to be full of R&R. Hopefully I'll have good news to share at the end of the week.

Activity Details for 9 Mile Pace Run - Week 11 Marathon Training

2009-09-05T12:29:00.001-05:00

9 Mile Pace Run - Week 11 Marathon Training: This was a tough run but thankfully I ran into the TNT marathon team as well as some other TNT folks from the triathlon team. They really helped me pull through this one.

(Via Garmin Connect.)

2009 Breakwater Half Ironman Triathlon

2009-09-01T10:59:00.001-05:00

Introduction

This has definitely been a busy sport year. For someone who professed nine months ago that this would be a "down" year, a lot has gotten done. So far 2009 saw me finish two marathons, three half Ironman triathlons and a sprint triathlon. Now I'm gearing up to do a marathon in North Carolina as well as a return to Disney World in January 2010 for the Disney marathon weekend.

Not only have I finished a number of events, I've also had my share of ups and downs in the form of injury and also burnout. 2009 has been long, tumultuous and exciting all wrapped up in a recession-laden coat. Considering all that could have gone wrong but hasn't I've been a very blessed person.

But this post isn't about recapping my life and times this year. I've got a bigger fish to fry: the Breakwater Triathlon in Petoskey, MI.

As you'll see, this race was a mix of good and bad. This event challenged me in ways I've never been challenged. It also offered some easy stretches when needed.

It started out early on Friday morning. I packed up the car the night before so nothing would get left behind by a half awake driver. The alarm clock went off at 4:30 and a half hour later I was on the road to Michigan. The drive there as well as back was relaxing and uneventful. In my time I've grown to appreciate these long drives. They offer great scenery and time for reflection on life, the universe and everything.

When I finally rolled into Petoskey it was around dinner time. My friends in Charlevoix, just 15 minutes south of Petoskey, offered me room and board for the night so I stayed down there and enjoyed some good food and great company.

Saturday was a big day. After a good night sleep my friend and I drove down to Traverse City to run a few errands. First and foremost was to visit my high school neighbor who relocated to the area with his wife and kids. It's always good to see them. And he never forgets to remind me about our friendly (so far non-existent) competition in the mountain bike world. For the record, Mike, you'd own me in that. No contest. But I'll play fair and get a mountain bike and train for an off road event.

The other major event for Saturday involved purchasing and installing Snow Leopard. In case you've been stuck on a remote island for the past few months, Snow Leopard is the new operating system for the Macintosh computer. It's absolutely wonderful by the way. You can read an exhaustive and detailed review at Ars Technica.

The rest of Saturday involved my driving back to Petoskey, checking into a hotel, picking up my race packet, laying everything out for Race Day and attempting to get a good nights rest for the event. I say "attempting" because between the overload of coffee drank and the new computer OS to play with I got a max of 3 hours of actual sleep despite my best efforts.

Race Day

Four o'clock couldn't have come any earlier. Not only was I sleep deprived from roughly 3 hours of sleep and a very long drive two days before hand but it's three o'clock according to my body clock because of the time zone change from Central to Eastern. Needless to say, I wasn't entirely there. But, the show must go on and so must I.

Transition

This was interesting. In most transitions you pick your spot but this one we had assigned spots. The negative side of this is you're very unlikely to get a coveted end spot. End spots give you the most space. The plus side is you can sleep in because there's no point in waking up at the crack of dawn to beat everyone there. Transition opened at 4:30 (yes, FOUR frigging THIRTY) with a race start of 6:45 (yes, SIX frigging FOURTY-FIVE).

When I got there it was too dark to see anything but I had the good fortune of packing my head lamp. That turned out to be a godsend because it not only helped me get my spot set up but I could also help a lot of the people around me too. Speaking of the people around me, #113 (I was #114) didn't show up so as fate would have it I had all the room anyone could ask for anyway for transition.

The only actual downside with transition was at the far end by "BIKE IN/OUT". It had been raining for days prior to race day so there was an unavoidable swamp over there. Good thing I leave my cleats locked on my bike or else that would have been a very bad thing. I can't speak for everyone else though.

Another interesting point to note about transition was the hike we had to make. As soon as we left the actual transition area we couldn't mount our bikes until we climbed four sets of stairs and crossed under a highway. This was very unique and not necessarily a bad thing. Just something different.

Swim

Due to inclement weather the swim course was changed. Originally we were scheduled to swim a very interesting "R" shaped course. Instead it was changed to two loops around the middle dock in the link above. That also changed the distance from 1.2 miles to 0.91. I was not happy with this but what can you do? Fortunately the water temp was around 65°F so it was a very comfortable swim. Ironically the water temp was warmer than the air temp so it was nice staying in the water.

My swim went okay except for the head-on collision I caused because I was having a bad steering day. On the way back from the second loop, when we were at the end of the dock, I sighted incorrectly and swam right into some of the women. Oops. On an even more fun note I also swam right into one of the large buoys too. Yes, it was a bad swim day for me. Here's a link to my swim.

Bike

It's not clear to me there are words in the English language that can fully capture the experience of this bike. It was, by far, the hardest bike I've ever done, training or otherwise. Earlier this year I participated with the Team in Training at a half Ironman event in Sunriver, OR. There, we not only had elevation to deal with but we also climbed a mountain.

That was easier than the bike portion of the Breakwater triathlon.

So we're clear, this isn't a complaint about the bike. This is a statement of fact. It was HARD! Other than wishing I had packed my booties because at times my toes were cold it was a pretty smooth bike. My only main problem with it was the two hairpin turns we needed to make to lengthen the course to 56 miles. They will hopefully be able to figure out something next year to avoid this but hopefully they leave the course pretty much unchanged. Personally, I think the extreme challenge of the bike course will be what draws in the crowd. You definitely need to do this to understand. Check out my map of the ride including elevation, HR, cadence, etc. Seeing is believing.

Run

This was the best part of the event. The run was along the Lake Michigan shoreline on a dedicated pedestrian path. The path itself is mostly tree lined and very well kept. It gives the feeling of being out in the wilderness despite being right along a highway. The run itself was mostly flat and very forgiving. Despite being an out-and-back run it was definitely scenery you didn't mind seeing twice.

My only regret with the run was not bringing my camera. The scenery was simply stunning. We ran through a tunnel which was fun but the best part was the first 2 miles and the last 2 miles. This section of the path is along a cliff so you can see the Lake Michigan shoreline below you but also the town across the bay as well as a semi-arial view of the break wall (e.g. finish line). Simply magnificent. Check out my run. It was slow because I've not been running much and my heart rate was getting high. Despite this it was a lot of fun.

The results are broken down by age group and by overall. Not my best performance but still a good time.

An Event Worth Doing

Practically perfect weather headlined an excellent event. Despite the unwelcome change in the swim course (uncontrollable) and the swamp in the transition area (uncontrollable) the event planners did a stellar job. As I mentioned, one of the most notable aspects of this event is the challenging bike course. Hopefully the race director will leave this unchanged because it will be a significant draw for people in the years to come. Everyone is looking for a challenge and this is something completely unique to this race. And if the bike course isn't enough to draw in a crowd then the run will certainly do the trick.

All in all I'm happy with the event and glad I was fortunate enough to be able to do it. This is definitely one to check out in the years to come.

IT-band Syndrome

2009-08-20T20:44:00.001-05:00

Iliotibial-band Syndrome

On Track for Breakwater Half Ironman Triathlon

2009-08-16T14:59:00.001-05:00

I've had my concerns about this one. After all, I had already done two half Ironman triathlons in the past two months. A third seemed a bit much for one season. To top that off I've been pretty burned out from doing any of the running/biking/swimming stuff. Needless to say it's been an uphill battle this month.

But I'm happy to report that not only do I feel more confident going into this one I actually feel like it'll be the best one to date.

Yesterday I hit up Afton again for a decent 50 mile route. Okay, technically it was Prescott, WI but who's taking notes? Lots of calories were burned and I really got a great workout in. I even got my fastest bike speed to date: 43.6 MPH.

Today was a decent milestone as well. I ran for 1.5 hours doing heart rate training in Zone 3 most of the time with 15 minutes reserved for Zone 4. My average pace the whole time was pretty crappy: 9:15/mile. But the personal victory was my max pace: 5:50/mile. That's right. I was fire burning on the dance floor. Check out the workout for more details.

Time for some quality reading and dining.

8-Week Beginning Runner's Training Program

2009-08-14T13:34:00.001-05:00

Are you wishing to start a life of running but lost in the whole process? Not sure where to even begin? Start here.

The Veteran Plan - Marathon Training

2009-08-14T13:27:00.001-05:00

The Veteran Plan is what I followed when I trained for and ran my fastest marathon to date. I'd love to get back into this plan when I start focusing on running again.

Check out The Rookie Plan if this one looks too intense. It's also a great workout.

Keep it Simple Stupid

2009-08-14T13:11:00.001-05:00

Great article in Runner's World right now about keeping running simple.

I'm guilty of the sin of overcomplication so it'll be refreshing to see what they come up with. This is reader contributed so you hear a wide variety of responses and suggestions. Definitely worth a read.

Runner's World iPhone Shoe App

2009-08-14T13:05:00.001-05:00

http://gear.runnersworld.com/2009/08/the-new-rw-shoe-shop-iphone-app.html

Haven't gotten too far with it myself but the geolocation for stores is great. Found all the usual suspects in the local area including a few in Woodbury on the other side of the metro. Hopefully as time passes they update the app with new shoes as they come out as well as reviews. It's not a comprehensive guide as it doesn't contain any Newton Running shoes.

Runner's World Forerunner 310XT Review

2009-08-14T13:02:00.001-05:00

http://gear.runnersworld.com/2009/08/garmins-new-forerunners.html

Looks like a winner. Now to find an excuse to get it.

Run Less For More Results

2009-08-05T19:24:00.001-05:00

Run Less For More Results

2009 Tour de Tonka

2009-08-04T09:43:00.006-05:00

I've done this event for the past three years and it just keeps getting better and better. This year the ride was altered to include a 75 mile ride. With any luck they'll figure out how to put in another 25 so next year they have a full century.

As for the ride this year, I can't imagine how it could get better. The roads were great with a few spots of freshly laid pavement. The rest stops were plentiful and very well stocked. Most of the intersections were well manned and friendly to bikers, and the weather couldn't have been better. The wind added a lot of challenge but that also added to the fun too.

Even the finish area had all-you-could-eat pizza from Gina Maria's. That's one of the best pizza places in the area. Hands down. And all for the modest entry fee. As long as it's humanly possible you can expect my entry into this event every year.

Check out the course. I turned the day into a 90 mile day by riding to and from the start area.

2009 Chisago Lakes Half Ironman

2009-07-31T17:36:00.001-05:00

It's been over a month since Pacific Crest. Having a half Ironman triathlon behind my belt I thought I'd take a stab at another one. I learned a lot after my first experience and wanted to put that to the test in the home town area.

Chisago Lakes was a great tri to test out the waters too. Sparing all the details, suffice it to say the day was perfect except for a bit of a very warm sun. The swim went very well, the bike course was mostly freshly paved and flat and the run course was, while unimaginative and sort of lame, overall not a bad experience.

The real victory was my nutrition on the bike. I must have done a great job of the nutrition because I hit the run portion ready to go. So that was in and of itself all the victory I needed for the day.

Here's the link to my results as well as some of my pictures. All in all I smashed my Pacific Crest time. Honestly I would have been sorely disappointed if I hadn't.

Don't Like the Screen Dimming?

2009-07-19T10:03:00.001-05:00

A lot of my Mac using friends don't like it when the computer screen dims itself. This is a power saving feature that's on by default but a simple action will let you disable it. Go to

System Preferences >> Energy Saver.

Once there, select

Options

and uncheck the box highlighted in the image.

Done.