Me and My Machine

After yet another night of poor poor sleep I was up and on my bike by 7 this morning. As I rolled out the door the cool crisp air, clear blue sky and a gorgeous sun rise was waiting for me. Just me, my machine, iPod and thoughts. I decided that to head towards Wayzata, maybe do the TNT loop and most importantly stop for coffee and a French Toast muffin at Caribou. For those that have not ever tried this muffin; its a must. Anyone that has ridden from Mntka to Wayzata on McGinty, knows this road sucks. Its full of cracks, potholes, and wash board areas. Some areas are so poor the shoulder is gone. But nonetheless I was headed in that direction, again. As soon as I got to McGinty I was suddenly reminded that it has been repaved all the way to Hwy 101. Sweet!!! I switched play list to "Gut Check" put my head down and did my only little TT to downtown Wayzata. Legs and lungs burning; heart rate at ~ 315; that might be a little high!!! Rolled into Caribou, got my coffee and muffin, walked across the street and watched the boat traffic on the lake; which was plenty already. What a great way to start such a beautiful day.

This how I felt on the bike today, just happy to be out and having a great ride!!!!

Ever start cleaning, come across random photos from the past that never made it into the album? So you stop what you are doing, sit on the floor, couch, chair and thumb through them again. Forgotten times suddenly come flooding back in, you catch yourself smiling, chuckling, perhaps tearing up over the images that are before you. In the age of digital media, not a lot of printed out photos anymore, at least not at this house hold.
So this scenario happened to me this evening as I was cleaning the office. We have been in this house for almost a year, and yes still have packed boxes. Well with the extra time I have now that training has stopped and Rachel in NC; what better time than the present to get things cleaned up. Clearly there was no thought when packing the last few boxes prior to the last move. Just about every box I opened had more random pictures in it. So as I was looking them over I laughed out loud more than once. I laughed because of clothing style, my hair, trying to look "cool" for the camera, college parties, softball games, etc. So as I am currently living in the past I think how far I've come since those photos were taken.
Photo #1, pre-race at Door County Tri in 2005. This was my 1st race. I figured I was playing a lot of bar league softball, was pretty thin and was active; so this should be no problem. I know those were my thoughts going into it. Again, clearly I was wrong. But without that race I would have never picked up the sport that has given me so much happiness.
Photo #2, McQuads Softball Tournament. Most everyone is aware i used to play a lot of ball. So, of the two teams I ran, we picked a group of us and headed to Bismarck for a weekend of fun. The photo I am speaking of, Sunday afternoon, we just won the 3rd place game; had to play 5 that day to even get to that game. We are all sitting on a wall in a driveway, completely beat down, hot, dirty and looking like we just came from a serious battle. That was the also the 1st of what would be 3 years of us gong to that tourney. The guys I played with, still make the yearly trip and have continued to do well. But I will not forget the faces of the other teams when we showed up.
Photo #3, my 21st b-day. I was also living in Mpls at that time, fulfilling my internship for school. I was living with a high school buddy in Stadium Village on the U of M campus. That was one were I burst into laughter when I came across it.
Photo #4, Prior Lake swim 2007. Master's Jim, Sally and 2 others swam across Prior Lake last summer, ~2 miles to Capt Jacks for a beer.
Photo#5, this is my all time favorite picture of me. I look to be about 3 years of age, dirt or food in a few spots on my face, my fat little arms and gut shooting out of a yellow shirt that says "My parents created a Monster" Ziggy and his buddy are the cartoon characters on the shirt as well. I have this dazed look on my face, nothing out of the norm right, just staring back at the camera. I come across this picture every now and again and just think of what that little boy had and still has in front of him.

I am going to try and take these 5 pictures to work and have them scanned and posted in the next few days so people know what I am talking about. Here's hoping that every now and than you stop cleaning, and sit down to relive the past when you come across something you've not seen in long time.

60 minutes including ice cream

So, as of 2+ weeks ago my season was done. I think that I've pretty much made that clear. So last weekend I said how I had a nice ~10 mile ride with my dad. So again virtually no training since the week prior to Turtleman. I contacted a fellow training partner Friday to see if they were interested in an easy coffee ride on Sunday. Nothing serious, maybe an hour stop for coffee and call it a day. Well, this partner, lets call them "S Nelson" for the sake of the post, had a big run Fri/Sat and was more than happy to do an easy ride and get some ice cream, but only if it was from McDonald's. So I meet up with S Nelson at the trail head in St Louis Park and headed east toward Mpls. We continued east until we got to Hiawatha and than meet up with West River Rd. From there we went by the Falls, past Fort Snelling, around the airport, over the 494 bridge, into Eagan and Mendota Heights. Continued into Lilydale and finally St. Paul. Now St. Paul was mentioned at the beginning of the ride to see the Xcel and if they had done anything for the upcoming Republican National Convention. They haven't done much as of yet, in case you were wondering yourself. So follow some roads in downtown St. Paul and wind over to Grand Ave to Bread & Chocolate. A great little treat store that I found earlier this year after my vO2 max test. I had 1-1/2 coffees, we each refilled our lone water bottles, again we planned for 60 minutes and ice cream or coffee, and headed back west. By now, S Nelson, was wanting the fastest way back to the Park and Edina. So we headed back towards Minnehaha Park and took the trails to Nokomis. Followed the parkway to Harriet and Calhoun. Making our way back to the commuter trail and straight west towards the end. We split ways at the trail head were we met up and I rode the ~6 miles back home. All in all it was a great ride, awesome weather and I had not chatted with this riding partner in a few days so it was nice to get caught up. I hope everyone was able to get out and enjoy the great Midwest weather that we had last weekend.

By the way, about 60 miles total for me; and NO ice cream. Last time I do an easy 60 minute ride with S Nelson.

10 years, like we never lost contact

I loaded up the truck and headed back to EC for the 2nd time in 3 weekends. Jack and I left town Friday evening on what promised to be a great time. I was heading home to see an old high school buddy that I had not seen in roughly 6-8 years. He is back at his parents for a few months, in a transition stage, moving from out east back to CO. He was hired by his parents to re-landscape the walk way and steps from the yard to the river. Like I said, the weekend promised to be a good one. We had spoke about water skiing, hanging out on the pontoon and just generally getting caught up with each other. For those that don't know, I played hockey until I was a senior in high school. Politely told the coach he was an ass and left the team mid-season. Dan, the old friend and another fellow senior walked off of the team with me that same night. I had to talk Dan into skating both his junior and senior years, I think the deal maker was I would drive to school and practice.
Jack and I got into town Friday about 7:30ish and I went straight to see Dan. I had a few cocktails with him and his parents down by the river and than went out to watch some buddy's play softball a few miles from my parents house. I ended up at a bonfire and got to bed about 3:30ish. Jack was a real trooper Friday night. He was very well behaved and stayed by my side all night. My old softball team mates had informed me of games they were playing during the weekend and it was another great way to see more folks while I was home. Showing up to the field, I had to laugh. All of the matching uniforms, pants, shoes, batting gloves, etc; its pretty comically. When I played roughly 250-300 games a year, it all seemed normal. Now, they look like morons, but they're all having fun.
Saturday morning I woke up after about 4 hours of sleep, Jack's revenge for not letting him lay around Friday night was to wake me up about 7:15 so he could go out and pee. I was pretty "head achy" and very very dehydrated. Gotta love Wisconsin, I cross the border at Hudson and almost instantly get drunk. I hung out at my parents house for the little while, went back to the ball field for some of the morning's games before going back to the water and helping with the landscape work.
I hauled rock and helped where and when I could with the redesign of the walk way. Had a great time and than, FINALLY we got out on the water later in the afternoon. Meet up with my parents that were already out, my aunt and uncles and even my Grandpa was out, in rare form as always. He is real character!!! Had a few cocktails on the boat, worked on beating Dan in "Splash Dives" and entertained his parents for about 30 minutes as we acted like 12-14 year old's jumping off of the dock again.
The weekend was exactly what I had hoped for. I even got bike ride in with my dad this morning. I had blast checking up with friends and reminiscing about old times.

Terrible at Turtleman

Saturday morning started out great. A light rain in the early early morning; nothing to ruin race day. Nice cool temps and little to no wind. Gonna be a good race, right? Wrong. Since Rachel has moved to NC it is has been a little lonely coming home to an empty house. For the last 7 or 8 years we have lived together, married for almost 5 of those. Now the one person that, at least seems to care about my racing is gone. I know that we talk on the phone at least daily, but its not the same as having her here. So motivation is more than likely at an all time low. Mentally drained from a long season, a great season and the effects of training pretty hard since last November. I crashed the end of last year and my off season started in July so the Nov start was a good time to get back on the horse.
Water temp at the 25th running of the Turtleman Triathlon was 77.999 degrees. Now if it were 78 or warmer, no wetsuits. So for the mile swim, I was immediately in a place that I didn't like; over heating. Having a full wetsuit, than adding a swim cap, not much exposed skin to try and let the heat out of the body. At the turn I was starting to feel myself fade, was told by a fellow racer that is the point that he lost his "free" ride from my draft as he was dropped, but I felt like I was slowing so I pushed on. Apparently way to hard. I've never gotten sick during a race and actually puked, until Saturday. T1 was seemed to take for ever, I was puking. The first 3 miles of the bike, again took forever, more puking. Now these were not full on flu pukes, more of the heart burn vurps (vomit burps). About 1/2 way into the bike I was able to keep my Heed drink from wanting to come back up, didn't even think of taking my gel for fear of a major disaster. I thought a few different times of calling it quits when I out for my bike ride. But than I remembered they got a sweet finishing pin last year, "what am I going to get for the 25th year?" I know, but I do all of these races for the free shirts, bags, hats, etc that we get (yes I know that is all covered in the entry fees) So I came into T2, racked the machine that had zero umph and started off of the run. The opening mile went so so. Walked some of mile 2, damn aid stations and trying to take in too much water and Heed. So I walked to relax my stomach, started running again and enjoyed the rest of the day. I have referred to "the Hurt Locker" before in posts, this was not a trip there, this was a good ol' slug fest of wits. After the race "Swimmer Jim" asked how it went, he said he knew something was up when he saw my stellar T1. I told him about the day and he was said he was glad that I fought through it. I too am very happy for continuing on. By the way, we got a pretty nice wind breaker jacket for racing.
So, being total spent mentally, my '08 season is DONE!!!!!! Yes, that means I am not driving to Palo, IA this coming weekend to do the Pigman Half Ironman race. I can not complain about any of my races, including this latest one. I busted my ass this year, off season and race season and made some huge strides. I have Dan at SCS Multiport to thank for getting me there. This was the 2nd year that I used him as a coach and am very very happy with the results I got from his guidance.
Now that the off season is here for me, you probably ask; "What are you going to do with all of your free time?" Today I bike for 6 hours and covered just under 100 miles. I ate 2 Chipotle burritos when I was done and watched the Olympics. Tomorrow I will probably start my off season frozen pizza and beer diet. I might try to sneak one late season "fun" race in, plus I have the Beer-n-Brat 5k and Capt Jack's 2 mile swim to get in before the snow flies. I know that all of my posts are race related, but I will try to keep posting. For those that are still racing this season, good luck and we can toe the line together next spring.

Splash-n-Dash Fun

As I rolled out of bed, okay off the couch this morning and looked at the clock; 5 AM. Thats pretty early. Only a few weeks ago it the sun would have been coming up, shinning in the big picture window as Jack warmed his lazy butt on the back of the couch. Now, its dark, cool and almost the end of summer. But alas, off to Cedar Lake I go.

I pack my shoes, goggles and even remember a towel this time. I am meeting the crew for our workout. When I get to the beach, Dennis is already there. YES, someone else crazy enough to get up and do this with me. Than Sara, Nick, Shelley (riding her bike) and John all show up. As we stand around getting warmed up, only John and Dennis are doing the splash-n-dash with me. So I load their shoes into a bag, steal Shelley's bike, its clearly built for the vertically challenged folks in the world, and I pedal off to the opposing beach. Now this is a lake I have swam in about 100 times, maybe not, but a bunch of times. I have ran and rode the trails that surround the lake as well. This morning I managed to get lost trying to find the beach. You'd think that for a public park they would put up a sign. After a few wrong truns I get to the water again, set up the 6 pairs of shoes (2 pair per person) and back to the starting beach. The water was warm, really warm so no wettie for me!! Actually no one was in a wetsuit this morning.

Both of the swims went well, as did the runs. The 2nd set I drafted off of Dennis, yes he slowed down so I could draft and John followed me. We made good time to the other side and did the last run in a pack and chatted as we covered the roughly mile trip back to the starting point. This is probably one of my more enjoyable workouts. I think because I seldom do it, its way different than the normal style bricks I do and it forces me to get my legs going right out of the water, which I struggle with.

I was able to get the Lake Minnetonka 5 mile swim photos to upload tonight too, hope you enjoy

Jim smiling for us during his swim

Jen, me and Jim having a coffee after the race (Jim finished 8th overall, nice job buddy!!)

Jen taking a photo of her an I paddling; I think Jim was swimming nearby

Just Me and Jack....

Well, its been about 2 weeks now since Rach has been in NC, man have Jack and I had a ball. Okay, so we haven't. I am training for the last 2 races of the season and he sleeps on the back of the couch. We get to talk to Rach, yes we. When she calls I put her on speaker and Jack barks at her. She is having fun so far in the south. Went to visit her new job last Monday and meet the folks she will be working with. Her hand is healing nicely she tells me and that she thinks she will be able to start working the middle of next week. Scabs have come and gone on a few of the wounds, so thats good. The big one in the meaty part of the hand is taking a little longer than she wants.

Training is going well, not very motivated right now, but still getting the workouts in. After Pigman I am done for the '08 and will start the off season; frozen pizza, beer, wings, etc. Man I love the off season!!!

On Saturday mornings training ride in WI, I was back home for my brother in laws high school grad party, I got to flag down a sheriff and tell him about an injuried cyclist. I was in the middle of one of my efforts when up the road I was 2 riders. I assumed they were just kids, they were in the middle of the road, than back on the right side, than they would veer out into the center again. Well, when I got up to them, one of them had crashed. He wasn't bleeding or broken at all. Just full of gravel and looked really dazed; they weren't kids either. They were a married couple that looked to be about 50-55. The gentlemen had went down and the wife was trying to steady him. I stopped, becasue I am a nice guy, and offered assistance, water, my cell phone, really anything that they might need me to do. They said they were fine, I double checked with them and went on with my ride. I got back into the effort, head down and spinning well. Up over a rise I see a sheriff coming towards me. I flag him down explain the situation with the married couple and where I saw them. He wants my name and number, I guess he thought I was pretty good looking and maybe wanted to grab dinner and drinks, ha. They called me about 45 minutes later and said they found the riders and that everything was okay. It was a little wierd to come up on an incident like that. I was in no mans land again, not hardly even seeing cars let a lone other riders. The rest of the ride was pretty normal, I rode around the Eau Claire/Chippewa County roads and even went to "play" in the hills by the apple orchards. There are a set of 3 that make he wonder how the guys in the Tour are able to climb hills like they do.



Getting up at the but crack of stupid tomorrow morning to meet the normal open water crew at Cedar and hopefully do a Splash-n-Dash workout. Swim about 700-750 yards, get out, run roughly a mile at a good clip, jump back in the lake and swim back to the second pair of shoes. Should be a good workout if the usual number of folks show up for it. I did it once or twice last year and its fun.



Last weekend I canoed for a swim buddy while he did the Lake Minnetonka 5 Mile Challenge. The swim was unfortunatly shortened to 4 miles, e coli was invading the finishing beach. That didnt stop some folks from doing all 5 miles. I paddled last year for him as well, its a good time and quite the distance to swim. I am not sure if I would be smiling like he was while doing it. I can't get the photos to upload of the event, I'll try again later this week