Mighty Wolf Sprint

My coach, Mike, wanted to get the team together and rock a small local sprint triathlon.  We had a good showing with about 10-12 people, which was pretty cool having the whole team there.  The atmosphere around the race was pretty relaxed.  The race directors explained the course before starting the race and it kind of felt like they would just say “You know, rack your bike and stuff someplace in there, go here, turn around there, come back, yada yada.”  Just a fun race to be at.

This was my first time racing a sprint in a while.  Why? They hurt! I like the longer distance races, not that those don’t hurt or anything.  On the other hand, red lining it for 60 minutes can be lots of fun as well!

I signed up the day of the race and was put in the 5th wave.  Even with the waves only being maybe 30-40 people at a time, it was still a rough swim.  The swim was in a man-made lake and pretty tight.  I caught a stiff elbow in the jaw and had to swim over two people – they kept pushing me outwards (ie, were swimming in the wrong direction).  Sorry! Ha!  Even though the swim was short, I decided to swim in my Zoot SpeedZoot.  I’ve never swam in it yet and wanted to try it out.  It almost makes you feel like you’re swimming nekked.  Nice!

Coming out of the water I just started hammering.  Looking back there were a couple times where I probably could have kept pressure on the pedals, but I wanted to have a good run as well.  Being in the fifth wave leaves you lots of people on cruiser bikes to pass.  Whats even better is that I ride a Zipp 999 wheelset (808 up front, 900 disc in the back) and they’re LOUD!  I love catching up to people and having them look back cause they hear me coming up on them.  Makes me smile everytime.  It was a flat 15 mile ride.  I came in around 35:00 +/- :10, which gave me a split mph avg of 25.7 mph.  I’ll take that!

After a quick T2 it was off running.  I’m not really used to running really fast right away.  I started out pretty easy, then remembered what type of race I was in.  Get ‘em going! The course started out running in the grass around a baseball field.  I don’t mind running on grass but this stuff was’t level in the least bit.  I almost fell 3-4 times with the ground dropping from underneath me and running over holes.  Thankfully that didn’t last too long and we got onto the roads.  I had to stop for a split second and yank on my laces to tighten them up.  Then got down to business. At the turn around I found I was the fourth person, but thats somewhat misleading as I started in the fifth wave.  I was ahead of some of them.  Anyways, I ran a bit harder on the way back, through the grass almost falling (again) and finished with a good kick to the finish line.  It was a flat 3 miler that I ran in 16:08.  5:23s.  Yup, I’ll take that as well.

When all the results where compiled I ended up with an overall time of 59:21, placing 2nd Overall and 1st in my AG. So close. For having not done a sprint in such a long time, nor even training even remotely close for a race of this type I’m happy with the results.

Since the race was so short, a few of us took off after the race and rode the Door County 70.3 bike course.  Nice scenery, but some not-so-good roads on the course.  Either way, it should be a fun race in a few weeks!

Ironman Kansas 70.3

We ain’t in Kansas anymore!  Although I did like the area we were in down there.  Very nice!  We headed down for Ironman Kansas 70.3.  I’ve heard lots of good things about this race and I was looking forward to racing it.  This was the first race on the Orbea Ordu, in my Team Zoot race kit and also on Zoot Ultra TT shoes.  New gear is fun.

The race went pretty good and I ended up setting a PR for me in the 70.3 distance by over 3 minutes.  I also had the fastest bike split (2:19) by over a minute in my age group on a hilly course.  Backed that with a solid run (1:23) and the day was pretty good to me.  We’ll skip talking about the swim for now, but the gist of that is I needed to sight better and swim straighter.  I think I was in a different lake at one point.  HA!

I finished with a time of 4:21:50, placeing 3rd in my AG and 15th overall (non-pro).  The full race report is here. I also have some pics up of the race and weekend on the Photos page. I did get a Clearwater slot, again, but passed on it as I have a little bit bigger of a race a few weeks before that.

Now, back to training.  Door County Half-Ironman is up next on July 17th!

DonkeyMan

DonkeyMan 2009 was a hit!  It was good to meet and see everyone again.   Big thanks to Chris and Jeanne for hosting and organizing – even though I did make a couple wrong turns on the bike course!  Good times all around and fun racing with everyone.  Photos of everyone can be seen here.  Thanks to Amy for all the great shots!

Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon

Here we are already in May and at the Cellcom Green Bay Half Marathon.  Even though this race was not on my “A” list this year, I still look forward to it every year.  The Race Director, Sean, always puts on the best races around here.  Plus, the race finishes at Lambeau Field (which you also get to run through) and has all-you-can-eat-brats with beer at the finish.  Gotta love that!

The day before the race we had some crazy wind around here.  Thankfully, it died down and gave us a decently nice day – mid 40s at the start, sunny, some wind, but not too bad to start off with.  Overall pretty nice.  Taking this race in stride with training, everything went pretty well.  I’ve had better races but still a decent showing for today.  I took a time of 1:18:39 – placing 3rd out of 158 in my age group and 27th out of 3744 overall.

As usual, I’ll save you all the details here so you can read the full race report.  I also have a few pics of the day which will be up here as well.

Up next, Kansas 70.3 in June.  I’m really looking forward to tri season around here!

Oschner Ironman New Orleans 70.3

This past weekend a group of us headed down to The Big Easy for the Oschner Ironman New Orleans 70.3 race.  At the pre-race meetings they told us this is the biggest 70.3 event in the world!

Come race day it was apparent that the weather was going to force us to adjust out goals.  At 5a it was 70F and 100% humidity.  No kidding.  I thought that at 100% humidity we’d be under water, but I guess the levies did their job this time.  During the race it was to get hotter.  Mid 80s and 80-90% humidity, to be exact, and that’s just what we were dealt.

This was a tough race due to that.  Not that the course was tough, it was pancake flat.  The course was also completely closed and more police officers worked this race than Mardi Gras. Riding down the middle of the freeway was kinda cool!

Anyways, I finished the race in 4:36:29, placing 5th in my AG and 62nd overall.  I was the 24th amateur in as well.  I qualified for the 70.3 World Champs through rolldown, but passed on the spot as its so close to the Ironman World Championships.  I’ll save all the details so you can read all about the race in the race report on the Race Results page.  I also have some Photos of the trip on here. Check it!

Team Zoot ULTRA

I am very excited to announce that I have been asked to join Team Zoot ULTRA!  The triathlon team consists of only 33 people – 8 pros and 25 amateurs.

For the ‘09 season, we will be racing in Zoot clothing, wetzoots and shoes.  We will be riding the Orbea Ordu bike and on Zipp wheels.  Nutritional support will be provided by Gu as well as Nutra-Fig energy bars.  Also, Suunto will be our watch/heart rate monitor of choice and FuelBelt will be providing hydration belts and accessories.

I am proud to be representing Team Zoot ULTRA and am looking forward to a great year of racing with the team!

2009 Race Schedule

I’ve pretty much nailed down my race schedule for ‘09.  Last month I already raced the Seroogy’s Valentine’s Day 15k and in a month I’ll be in New Orleans for the Ironman New Orleans 70.3 race.  Here’s the goods:

• April 5th – Ironman New Orleans 70.3 Triathlon
• May 17th – Green Bay 1/2 Marathon
  
• June 14th – Ironman Kansas 70.3 Triathlon
  
• July 17th – Door County Half-iron Triathlon
• August 16th – Pigman Half-iron Triathlon
• October 10th – Ironman World Championships

There may be a smaller race or two in there, but this is basically it.  I like the longer races and sticking to that distance this year.  Lots of travel, big races…good times.  I’m liking 2009’s race line-up!

Seroogy’s Valentine’s Day Run 15k

So, I’m a little late on posting this update but better late than never, right? On Feb 7th we ran in the Seroogy’s Valentine’s Day 15k run.   The past couple years we had some pretty dull weather, but it was nice this year – 40F and some wind.  This really beats the 0F starting temp that one year, or the couple of inches of snow we got the night before last year’s race.

I didn’t have much expectations this year as I haven’t been training much of the top end stuff lately and am “not really in race shape” right now, if you get my drift (ahem, off season, ahem).  I had a goal of just running 6s and plans for something else.  Really, I think I was more excited to wear racing flats than anything…love those things!  Anyways, the race went well and I cruised along at a comfortable race pace.  Didn’t push too hard and played some “games” with the other guys out there.  I ended up with a 15k PR (if you don’t count my 15k split from the Green Bay 1/2 marathon last year) coming in at 55:53 – 2nd in AG, 4th OA.  My wife, Amy, also ran a nabbed a 10′ PR for her!

So, yeah, happy with how it went given I’m not there right now, but thats what this time of year is for.  After talking with some other people at the race it turns out that one of the top two, who train together, runs for Team Nike and just came up short for the 2008 Olympic Trials.  Either way, I’m already looking forward to my other races in ‘09!

Traditions

My wife, Amy, and I have a yearly tradition on New Year’s Day to have a “breakfast of champions”.  This has been going on now for 4-5 years and it’s always something we look forward to.  The menu typically varies from year to year depending on what we want to make – basically its a pig-out breakfast with stuff we normally wouldn’t eat, but its oh-so good.  So, on New Year’s Eve I made some cinnamon bread to which was going to be used for french toast.  On top of the french toast, bacon from our local butcher (the organic farmer was out of bacon) and some eggs from a local chicken egg-laying place or something like, that were cooked up they way they should.  We ate a ton; probably more than we should have.  It was one of those breakfasts were you eat in the morning then you aren’t hungry until a late supper.  Never a let down….awesome start to the year.

On top of that I wanted to start something new this year.  I read something in a magazine where a guy would run the Boston Marathon course every year on New Year’s Day.  I thought that running a marathon every New Year would be a cool thing to do.  Originally, I wanted to do this on New Year’s Day, but the ginormous breakfast upon waking isn’t the best pre-race nutrition for a long run.

I woke up the next morning and the thought crossed my mind.  It was cold out – a whopping 3F, 15 mph West winds and a balmy -10F (and colder) windchill.  Roads weren’t in the best of shape either.  Amy was gone to work and I had nothing planned for the day.  I hemmed and hawed about it for about an hour then decided just to do it.   Could there be any better weather in Wisconsin to run a marathon on a whim?  I think not!

So I got dressed and headed out.  I told my coach that I wanted to do this a couple weeks before and he didn’t seem to keen on the idea.  So, to ease it a bit I was going to keep it totally zone 1 and if I felt anything coming on that could be a potential injury I’d call it a day – when I got home from wherever I was.  I brought with my balaclava just in case as well as three hand warmers and dressed for the weather otherwise.  Two for my hands, one for my, uhh, other digit.  The guys out there know what I’m talking about and how it can bring us to the fetal position in near tears of pain.

A-n-y-w-a-y-s, the plan was to do a 14 mile route then finish it off with another loop.  I headed out going North and East – out of the wind.  These first seven miles were very warm, actually, with the wind at my back.  At the top of the route I made the turn South and thats when it started to get really cold.  I made it about 1/2 mile until I had to put on the balaclava as my nostril was freezing shut, blown together by the wind.  About another 1/2 mile down the road I had to stop and put in the hand warmers in my gloves, with the third still in reserve.  The route zig-zags back home and I finally made a turn West and into the wind.  No other words for it…it sucked big time.  After that mile (my “blocks” are typically a mile long, making a “run around the block” a four mile run)  I made another turn South, kinda out of the wind.  I had to stop and use the third “hand” warmer and shoved it down my pants.  Yeah, yeah…make fun of me all you want, but those that have been in the same situation know what I’m talking about.  I’m sure you women out there have your problems in the cold as well.  Besides, it felt like warm apple pie.  Okay, maybe not, err, not that I’d even now what that felt like.

So, a-n-y-w-a-y-s (yes, another one), it continued zig-zagging like that until I found my way home.  I stopped inside for a minute or two, grabbed some extra water, downed a couple of Gu and headed out again.  I mapped this 2nd loop in my head during the first so I could get a little “break” (if you even want to call it that) from the wind.  The route headed into the wind for about 2 miles, some cross-winds, then a tail-wind for about 4 miles which would give me a break and a chance to warm up a bit and then, after heading South back to my home road, about 1.5 miles into the wind to finish it off.

Stopping at home seemed like a good idea at the time.  But I quickly realized that all it did was let everything on me thaw out and get wet.  After the first 1/2 mile out again, everything on my was turning to ice and getting very stiff.  My balaclava was more or less frozen on my head now.

Besides all the freezing and running on very crappy roads, the rest of the run was pretty uneventful.  I kept an easier pace and just knocked it out.  The last 4 miles, though, were getting a bit tough, especially running into the wind on slick snow covered roads to finish it off the last mile.  But, I made it and after 3 hour and 13 minutes of running I completed my New Year’s Day marathon and was inside peeling off frozen clothes.  My balaclava was frozen to my head with a nice thick layer of ice inside of it.  When I took off my wind jacket ice fell out of the sleeves and my shirt undeneath that was covered in frost.  Nice, eh?

Coach didn’t seem too pleased when I told him.  I emailed him letting him know and to see if we had to change anything in the plan.  The response I got back was an empty email with “Fired” as the subject.  I got a laugh out of that.

A new tradition is born.  Ginormous breakfast of champions on the 1st with a marathon on the 2nd.  Sounds like a great way to kick off the New Year to me!

Fun at home

This past weekend I didn’t get much of anything accomplished, so we hung out at home.  Milo was having a lick-fest on the couch by himself and I wanted to see what he would do if I my head near where he was licking – no, sickos, he was licking his back.  He didn’t miss a lick and went straight for my head.  Sandpaper tongue on your head feels funny.  We were almost in tears we were laughing so hard.  He wouldn’t stop licking! Yes, I am balding, err, bald.

For the people who know me and live in the area, know how much snow we’ve been getting lately.  As of the last storm on the 10th, we already got about triple (24+ inches) the amount of snow we got in all of December last year – and its only 10 days in!  Living out in the boonies, surrounded by open fields, we get lots of drifts in our driveway.  Tuesday morning we woke up to knee-deep drifts all over the driveway with another foot when I got home that afternoon.  Here are some pics Amy took this past Tuesday morning while I was throwing snow around.

It took about an hour in the morning to partly clear the driveway that day, then another 2+ hours in the afternoon.  Our driveway is about 160 ft long and 60 ft at its widest so we need a thrower that big.  That thing eats drifts right up.  Tasty.