I always forget that I have this thing sitting around!
Well since that last post a ton has happened. I started my summer anatomy class, as well as work. The two of those have consumed almost ALL of my time. I came to realize that the first few weeks of summer gave me all the time I wanted to train. Since I have gotten a real schedule, training has become far more difficult, but I've managed to get it in.
I also raced our regional championship race: Evergreen Lake International, in Hudson Illinois. It was a unique race if there ever was one. I managed to keep my nerves down pre race, which was definitely a plus compared to Delevan. Going in, I knew the run would be pretty lame, so I just didn't worry about it. I had practiced my bike mounts, and had figured out how to race in my favorite shoes. Most importantly, my swims had been rockin', and so I figured the race would go well. Unfortunately, I had neglected my sighting practice. The swim hurt, and felt like it took forever! (Although it was significantly faster than Lubbock). I was stoked to get on the bike, and after a bit of a shakey transition I was off.
In another (possibly) unfortunate turn of events my computer was not working, so I found I zoned out of how fast or slow I was going most of the time. Instead I just rode, and about 10 miles in I started feeling pretty good. The course had 2 decent hills going each direction, and was otherwise flat, which was a treat compared to my previous two races.
The transition into run went poorly. I had a rough time calming down to get my shoes on and tight. I actually ran my bike completely passed by rack. I also ran almost all the way out of transition without my number belt! The run hurt, but I didn't get the brick wall feeling in my legs until nearly the end, so it could have been worse. At the end, I PRed by nearly 10 minutes (somewhere in the 2:16 range).
Since the race I've been training, though not as much. I'm tossing around the idea of doing the Naperville tri in august again, but it isn't cemented...
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
A Weak Week in Training
So far, this week has seen the following pathetic training days:
Monday: Short, 45 min tempo to Mom's work for lunch with the Fam. Later, I had a quick core and lift session. It was my dad's birthday, so that was all followed by some pie and ice cream. LOTS of ice cream...
Tuesday: I paid for the Ice Cream. We had a late ride, so I spent the day munching on all kinds of stuff. Come bike ride, I felt as athletic as a pock-marked, dungeons-and-dragons playing middle aged man. One that lives on Cheetos and Mountain Dew.
Wednesday: SHORT swim in the morning. Something around 2500, maybe 3000. Probably not though. Later I went on a fartlek workout with Morgan and Brad from the team. I still feel like I have no ability to run around those guys. Miserable.
Thursday: Short ride before the rain, and a lift session. Too bad the ride was almost entirely in the rain. Including the nail through the tire. I have never felt so pathetic changing a tire. First time I'd ever tried the dollar-bill-tire-patch. Worked great!
Friday: Actually a decent hour run. Now I'm working on getting to the pool...Hopefully that happens.
I feel like I don't want to do anything right now. I've had headaches during all of my workouts, and I would rather sleep all day. I actually woke up at 10:00 today (that's three hours of extra sleep)! Hopefully that never happens again.
Monday: Short, 45 min tempo to Mom's work for lunch with the Fam. Later, I had a quick core and lift session. It was my dad's birthday, so that was all followed by some pie and ice cream. LOTS of ice cream...
Tuesday: I paid for the Ice Cream. We had a late ride, so I spent the day munching on all kinds of stuff. Come bike ride, I felt as athletic as a pock-marked, dungeons-and-dragons playing middle aged man. One that lives on Cheetos and Mountain Dew.
Wednesday: SHORT swim in the morning. Something around 2500, maybe 3000. Probably not though. Later I went on a fartlek workout with Morgan and Brad from the team. I still feel like I have no ability to run around those guys. Miserable.
Thursday: Short ride before the rain, and a lift session. Too bad the ride was almost entirely in the rain. Including the nail through the tire. I have never felt so pathetic changing a tire. First time I'd ever tried the dollar-bill-tire-patch. Worked great!
Friday: Actually a decent hour run. Now I'm working on getting to the pool...Hopefully that happens.
I feel like I don't want to do anything right now. I've had headaches during all of my workouts, and I would rather sleep all day. I actually woke up at 10:00 today (that's three hours of extra sleep)! Hopefully that never happens again.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Delavan Olympic
Wow....what a weekend...
Just got back from the Delavan lake Olympic race, and I placed first overall! It's funny to think that I almost dropped out before it even started.
The race is part of Lake Geneva Extreme Sport's summer series, and their reputation is less than stellar. My family drove me up the night before so we could all drive the course, and look at the course set-up. That might have been a terrible mistake.
After seeing the aweful, almost dangerous course I was in for, my nerves welled up. I did not sleep a wink all night, and my nerves were in overdrive. I got up in the morning sweating and with shaky knees. There was nothing in the world I wanted to do less then that race. If it weren't for my family, I very well may have never left my hotel room.
The Swim: The lake temperature was pretty mild, somewhere around 60, or 65. It felt great in my wetsuit. And the water was clear, unfortunately. If anyone saw the pictures or footage building up to the Beijing games of the city workers clearing algae from the water, that was the very first thing that came to mind. On race morning they had not even bothered to clear the goose crap or beer cans from the shore.
The Bike: Right out of transition, after running over the timing mat for the bike leg, cyclists were required to run their bikes down a quarter mile "construction road" of chopped up concrete and gravel, before mounting on highway 50! At least we had the shoulder... The bike was actually fun; it rode by a big sign that read S.M.I.L.E. (I'm not sure what the acronym was), and an ostrich farm. There were very few straight-aways, and lots of 90 and 120 degree turns into hills. The bike ended with the same run that it started with (although evidently some riders became ballsy, and braved the first ten feet of chopped concrete to get to some foot long grass to ride through, which supposedly shaved about two minutes off of their time).
The Run: "Beautiful cross country run through the grounds of Lake Lawn Lodge!" Ha! It was six laps of Terrible. The cross country parts ran through dirt fields, and sideways across hills that were barely cut. It was not that nice, packed, even grass. It was a grassy construction area. "This run is Bull S***" was a common phrase. My legs were hurting from the bike, and I was in no way used to that sort of terrain, so I just ran the pace my legs would move, and didn't shoot for anything faster.
All in all, it went far better than I hoped. I bit the bullet and just raced, not expecting anything, and I won #1 overall! Shows how much I know...
Just got back from the Delavan lake Olympic race, and I placed first overall! It's funny to think that I almost dropped out before it even started.
The race is part of Lake Geneva Extreme Sport's summer series, and their reputation is less than stellar. My family drove me up the night before so we could all drive the course, and look at the course set-up. That might have been a terrible mistake.
After seeing the aweful, almost dangerous course I was in for, my nerves welled up. I did not sleep a wink all night, and my nerves were in overdrive. I got up in the morning sweating and with shaky knees. There was nothing in the world I wanted to do less then that race. If it weren't for my family, I very well may have never left my hotel room.
The Swim: The lake temperature was pretty mild, somewhere around 60, or 65. It felt great in my wetsuit. And the water was clear, unfortunately. If anyone saw the pictures or footage building up to the Beijing games of the city workers clearing algae from the water, that was the very first thing that came to mind. On race morning they had not even bothered to clear the goose crap or beer cans from the shore.
The Bike: Right out of transition, after running over the timing mat for the bike leg, cyclists were required to run their bikes down a quarter mile "construction road" of chopped up concrete and gravel, before mounting on highway 50! At least we had the shoulder... The bike was actually fun; it rode by a big sign that read S.M.I.L.E. (I'm not sure what the acronym was), and an ostrich farm. There were very few straight-aways, and lots of 90 and 120 degree turns into hills. The bike ended with the same run that it started with (although evidently some riders became ballsy, and braved the first ten feet of chopped concrete to get to some foot long grass to ride through, which supposedly shaved about two minutes off of their time).
The Run: "Beautiful cross country run through the grounds of Lake Lawn Lodge!" Ha! It was six laps of Terrible. The cross country parts ran through dirt fields, and sideways across hills that were barely cut. It was not that nice, packed, even grass. It was a grassy construction area. "This run is Bull S***" was a common phrase. My legs were hurting from the bike, and I was in no way used to that sort of terrain, so I just ran the pace my legs would move, and didn't shoot for anything faster.
All in all, it went far better than I hoped. I bit the bullet and just raced, not expecting anything, and I won #1 overall! Shows how much I know...
Monday, May 25, 2009
It's all downhill
WHEW...what a great swim.
I really needed that. Since a week before the Nationals race in Lubbock, TX, my shoulder had been bothering me. I also have been working on breathing on my left side, and so my swimming has felt awful. So, I returned to YouTube and watched some more swimming videos, and decided to try swimming "down hill." What a difference! My hips popped up, I felt balanced, and I really moved through the water.
I think I will pick up a new pair of shorts tomorrow!
I really needed that. Since a week before the Nationals race in Lubbock, TX, my shoulder had been bothering me. I also have been working on breathing on my left side, and so my swimming has felt awful. So, I returned to YouTube and watched some more swimming videos, and decided to try swimming "down hill." What a difference! My hips popped up, I felt balanced, and I really moved through the water.
I think I will pick up a new pair of shorts tomorrow!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Saddle Sore
Wow. It has been way too long since I wrote anything. I signed in here earlier, and read my posts from the last blog I tried to keep up. I started it when I decided to do my very first race last summer. It feels like a lifetime ago when I had to struggle through a 400 m swim, and I was still using cages on my bike!
Within the last year, I've changed more than I can imagine. Of course its hard to comprehend...I am always me, there is no real way to step back for a before and after shot in most circumstances. But joining the Tri club at U of I has been one of the single most definining choices of my life. The amount that I learned about the sport in such a short time is amazing. I made friends, but most importantly, I found myself at a new school, and was able to settle in immediately, which was one of the biggest reasons Va Tech didn't work out.
Fast forward to the now, and I have all new problems I'm working on. I picked up a new saddle, as the rock hard road saddle I was riding on was quickly lowering my chances of having children in the future. I also got my fit looked at. Mike, the owner of my favorite bike shop thought it would be a good idea to raise my seat height just a bit. After ten or so miles of adjusting myself, I was cruising strong. Next up: a new pair of shorts!
Within the last year, I've changed more than I can imagine. Of course its hard to comprehend...I am always me, there is no real way to step back for a before and after shot in most circumstances. But joining the Tri club at U of I has been one of the single most definining choices of my life. The amount that I learned about the sport in such a short time is amazing. I made friends, but most importantly, I found myself at a new school, and was able to settle in immediately, which was one of the biggest reasons Va Tech didn't work out.
Fast forward to the now, and I have all new problems I'm working on. I picked up a new saddle, as the rock hard road saddle I was riding on was quickly lowering my chances of having children in the future. I also got my fit looked at. Mike, the owner of my favorite bike shop thought it would be a good idea to raise my seat height just a bit. After ten or so miles of adjusting myself, I was cruising strong. Next up: a new pair of shorts!
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