Getting back out

Wednesday I did manage to get out and get that 6 miler in. It was so fun. You know those spring rains that produce large, dense droplets? Well, that's what happened. One solitary dark cloud rolled in, stopped right over Hopkins/Minnetonka, and let us have it. I wish I had a picture. It was so fun. I love running in the rain. The wet shoe part sort of sucked but otherwise it was solid. I'm not sure if my shoes are dry yet but they certainly have a bad odor about them now. And it's not dog poo.

The unfortunate part about the run was the the fact my legs felt like lifting lead plates. I think between a sugar heavy (read: poor) diet and a overtraining, I think I've killed my season. I peaked in the early spring and it's not been the same since. This is probably just my body telling me that it's time to cool it down, take it easy, and stop beating the crap out of myself. Put another way, it's active recovery time.


As for yesterday I had a lovely bike ride with Kris and her friend Mark. It was one of those days where a casual ride was all my body could take. The day was so amazingly beautiful that you knew G-d was smiling on us. The sky was painted brilliantly with the clouds and the sunlight. It wasn't too hot or cool at all. The humidity was low. The wind was mild and almost completely still. It was the epitomy of why we live in this area.

Other than one small bike spill and a flat tire (which was changed in record time BTW) the ride was flawless. I've got some pictures too and will post as soon as I get home.

Torchlight Run 5K

This is the third year of my running the Torchlight 5K. It's an awesome 5K that starts at the Basilica of St. Mary in downtown Minneapolis, runs over to the stone arch bridge and finally finishes near Nicollet Island. It's been one of my favorite 5K's because of the large crowd it draws but this year it was so much more fun than last year. This year I met up with the TNT group at the Basilica. In other words, I had a bunch of friends to run this with. Plus, Jenae and I biked downtown to the start where Sarah (an overly generous member of TNT) let us store our personal effects in her vehicle for safe keeping while we ran the race.

I had a blast. It was so much fun seeing all my friends and racing with them. I took it easy on this one (that's my excuse because Jenae kicked the crap out of me AGAIN) but someday I'll put in an honest effort to do well in a 5K again.

Here's the map of both our bike ride and the 5K. Enjoy.

Minneman Triathlon 2008

The day after Independence Day I celebrated my second triathlon. This time it was the 2007 Best Triathlon award winner: Minneman. My friends Kris and Dana were both there competing as well as my neighbor Danny. It was great competing with people I know and also meeting all types of other people. Fun was had by all.

If I have one real complaint about the course it would be the forest of seaweed we had to swim through. UGH... really, how gross does it get? I actually got tangled up at one point because some doofus in front of me stopped swimming which caused me to stop. Apart from that one setback, the course is beautiful and the event is amazingly well run.

My one non-real complaint is the same one I had about the last tri I did. The biking portion blows. Honestly. It's almost borderline deep hatred. It's way too involved to get into it. Suffice it to say, I dislike biking. A friend even lent me his bike to use today. The bike is similar to mine in every way except for being completely carbon fiber based and a true dedicated road bike where mine is a cycle cross bike. It's lighter and faster. But... guess what happened? THE SAME DAMN THING as in the last tri: I lost all my ground in the bike because everyone and their grandmother passed me. I made it all up in the run but that made it even more frustrating because if I wasn't such a shitty biker I'd be passing people in the run that I now wouldn't even see. Biking is expensive, it's a pain in the butt, it's for the people with too much money, and it's the longest part of a triathlon. Go figure...

End Venting

Here's how today's sprint tri worked out:

Overall Time: 1:16:45
Overall Place: 84
Division Place: 11
Gender Place: 64
Swim Time: 11:32 (0.3 Mile)
T1: 1:56
Bike Time: 40:26 (13 Mile) = (19.29 MPH average)
T2: 1:08
Run Time: 21:44 (3 Mile) = (7:14/mile average)

UPDATE: Official results are in. They're unreadable for my purposes so I took the liberty,thanks to a little blank line script, to create a TXT file of the results that is formatted correctly.

UPDATE 2: Apparently Blogger is too dumb to allow for file uploads (only pictures and videos) so I've got this pretty results file that only I can see. Sorry.

It's officially official. I'm a triathlete!

That's right. Today I took my first steps into the world of triathlon. As with anything new, it presents its own set of challenges, rewards, frustrations and benefits. And that's not a bad thing at all. It's all about learning and growing with the new opportunity.

Today was the 4th running of the Lake Minnetonka Triathlon and it was a blast. The weather was amazingly beautiful. You couldn't ask for better weather. Not a cloud in the sky, nice warm sun, and tons of spectators. Even a few TNT team members came out to cheer.

Some of the TNT tri team was there to test their hand in their first tri of the season as well as one other rookie. Each of us competed in our own race and while some challenges were presented to them and not me, some they didn't face hit me. Let's run through the day.

I got assigned to wave two which seemed to be a bit out of place (i.e. This was for the 20 year olds and I'm not in that generation any more) but whatever. When the gun went off we all ran into the water in one huge swarm. I stuck back a bit because I didn't want feet in my face but my plan failed. Apparently I'm a better swimmer than I give myself credit for because I caught right up to the back of the pack and had feet and bodies in my way virtually the whole way. Also, one of the leaders of the pack got a buoy lost in his sight because of the glare from the sun so a whole bunch of us from that wave got off track and wound up swimming more than our 500 meters. That's fine with me because as it turns out swimming is a sort of strong point for me.

When we reached the shore and ran off to the transition area to get our bikes I had a little trouble getting my wetsuit off and my bike shoes on so my T1 time wasn't as great as I had hoped. But, what can you do?

The bike really presented my first challenge. This is my weakest point and I didn't do nearly as well as I'd have liked to. My bike is not really a good racing bike. No flat tires. No other mechanical problems. Just a bike that I shouldn't be doing races on. I want to get a tri bike and as soon as I get the coin to do it I'll make the purchase. But for now, biking continues to be my most frustrating point.

The second transition (from bike to run) went very well too. Just one small issue with getting my shoes on but otherwise it was great.

The run was only a 5K but I did great. Some of the time I lost on the bike I made up on the run. It's a good thing I don't totally suck at that.

And that's it. I crossed the finish line and can now add another title to my growing list of identities. I'm now a triathlete.

Here are my results from the day. More detailed results will be available soon.

My First Tri

This weekend's plan to go to Michigan fell through. The weather report looked too gloomy to justify a one way 6 hour drive. Meanwhile, here in the twin cities it was absolutely perfect. The weather couldn't have been nicer. I decided it was worth it to stick around with the TNT folks and compete in our mock tri.

I really had a blast and am glad I stayed to do it. The TNT people are such a blast and I learned so much from them.

The swim was amazingly strong for me. My wetsuit really helped out and once I got into a rhythm it was tough to slow down.

T1 (the first transition) was crazy. If you've never swam and then hopped right out of the water and ran try it once. There's nothing like it. You feel disoriented and can barely tell where you're going.

Biking just sucks so that's no big deal.

T2 (the transition from bike to run) was my biggest fall. When I got there I completely passed where my bike rack was and couldn't find it for about 20 seconds. Once I got there I had a problem getting my running shoes on too. Otherwise it was flawless and I even finished 2nd. :-D

I'm really looking forward to next weekend when I compete in my first official triathlon. I wouldn't be half the guy I am today if it weren't for people like Kris, Jenae, and the rest o the team.

Thanks for all of your help guys!

It's official...

I'm sad to report that for the first time ever, I've been beaten in running by a girl.

I know... though to believe. I'm trying to block it out of my memory but this time there's proof. Check out the paparazzi shots here. They caught me in a very surprised state as Kris pulled ahead of me in the Heart of the City Half Marathon and handed me a new one. Check it out.


Maybe it had something to do with the fact that my shirt was off and my skin is whiter than snow. Who knows. But I was skooled last weekend! Maybe next time I decide to be a Shirtless Wonder I'll do it in the comfort and solitary confinement of my back yard.

Heart of the City Half Marathon

Today is Kris' birthday so to celebrate she and I ran the Heart of the City Half Marathon in Burnsville. It's a very beautiful course which starts at the top of the hill in Burnsville and runs down to the Minnesota River valley. It really is one of those very beautiful runs. Too bad it was hotter than the fires of hell and damnation itself. But Kris and I still managed to make a good run out of it.

The course is below. Check it out.

Happy birthday Kris!!!



p.s. Now I'm off to do the most insane thing I've done yet: 8 hours of straight running from midnight to 8:00 a.m. Wish me luck. My friend Tim (who's running 24 hours of this thing) will need the most of the luck.

[UPDATE: I couldn't do it. I'm WAY too tired. After one lap, I called it quits. I just can't stay up late any more. Even for something I WANT to do.]

Back at Blogger

I've been using Apple's iLife suite to publish my rants, raves, and random accomplishments on the web ever since they came out with the '08 version. It seemed like a great upgrade to an already great software suite. They added a bunch of new features and in short sight it seemed like the way to go.

But, as the months moved on, I came to realize that the iLife suite, in particular iWeb, had a few short comings. Don't get me wrong. It's great software and makes publishing websites a breeze. But for my particular blogging needs, it's insufficient. It isn't well suited to day-to-day posting. It also doesn't work well as a blog editor unless you are on your own computer. It's completely insufficient for traveling unless you have a Macbook of one flavor or another.

Rather than rant and rave about some software that really is good but doesn't suite my particular needs, I'll focus on the task at hand, which is fitness.

I met up with my friend Kris - actually she drove over here because I'm too cheap to buy gas - and she and I did a nice leisurely bike ride around the area. Check it out below.

I've got a marathon this coming weekend and she was to take today off so rather than push ourselves we both just trotted along and enjoyed the beautiful non-snowing Minnesota evening.