Race pics and Getting older.

I figure if I'm a year older now, I would post some race pics, you never know when time will catch up to you. But for now I'm just trying not to act my age.

Just after the cold swim at the Racine Half IM last week. Never felt loopy after a swim before, probably the ice in my veins.

The bike bike portion of the race. People always tell me "cool tires" (they are orange) and stuff like that. One person said I was very color coordinated. My race clothes matched my bike. Hey I might not be the fastest but I do have fashion sense.

Finally the run, more of a fashion statement, I do like my yellow Mizuno shoes.

So I was trying to decide what great endurance adventure I would do on my 42nd Birthday. Hmm run my age? To tired and not enough spare time for that.

Eat 42 Twinkies or 42 Hooters chicken wings? The aftermath would have not been to pleasant.

How about 42 push ups at least?

Okay I decided!! I just did 42 minutes of a little bit of "Nothing" and chill'in out. I think I liked that endurance adventure!

All is not tottally lost thou, I'm sure I might of did at least 42 laps in the pool as well.

So that was what I did when I became 1 year older.

Now time for my monster b-day cheese danish. Let see if it takes me 42 minutes to eat this thing?

Feeling like a Triathlete again!!

On Sunday was the Racine Half IM. My second half IM in 4 weeks. The first was a spur of the moment and not a fun time for me. So with a little training under my belt I would try to do better at this one.

So I got my gear setup in transition and meet up with some of my fellow MultiSport Madness tri members.

There was a great deal of fog in the morning overshadowing the lake, so we were on a rolling swim delay. This lasted for about an hour. But kept busy talking to fellow bloggers like Megan, Chris, Alan, and some of my TRI teammates.

(me, Chris, and Megan)

The water was fricken cold, 55-56 degrees was the official temp. I tried to take a warm up swim, but I got brain freeze and my face felt like a Popsicle in the water. It was not to fun at all. But what can you do and just try to block it out as best you could. So with 21 minutes after the pro start I was off.

The swim course was laid out closer to shore, so the RD said if you could get into trouble you could just stand up. That was a comfortable thought but something I did not want to do. The first 1/3 of swim portion somehow was freaking me out, not sure why. Was it the cold? The people all around me? But I had thoughts of stopping and taking a walking break. But I finally settled in and tried to stay as close to the buoys as possible. I got kicked a couple of times in the face but I tried just to shake it off and just go. Then at one point a pack just swam across me, where are they they going? Was I way off course? Then the yellow buoy appeared and I swam for it. It was still a little strange why people seemed to be walking in at this point. Then I heard it, "GO BACK, You missed a BUOY". I was not alone in this predicament, WTF, we stopped and saw the other yellow buoy and went around it a swam on in once again.

Not sure if the swim was short, rumors about it, but I had a 40:38 swim even with the turn back, that's pretty fast for me, and I was happy with that time.

Then I made it into to T1, I actually saw one or more bikes on the rack, for me I never see any, so I was pleasantly surprised. So with my crazy Aero helmet on my head, I headed off to my second longest bike ride of the year.

I decided coming into the race, just to do my own thing, stay in a comfortable cadence and don't care how many people pass me. I saw one of my TRI club members passing me up, Saying "C'mon," ~ "ahh, just a casual training day for me", I replied to him. Off he went. I was actually feeling pretty good during the entire bike ride. There was alot of people passing me, but for once I let it not get to me. I knew I did not have to much bike training miles in me this year and just wanted to get through the bike portion without wanting to hurl my bike to the curb. So that didn't happen and I did a 18.3 avg on the bike, so I was happy to get at least that much out of me this day.

T2 was not spectacular, I had a hard time getting my Garmin watch off my bike, so still have to work on the little things to get faster in my transitions.

The run course was pretty much flat, except for some small hills in the beginning of each of the two loop course. I was trying to stay focused and just run my own race, so I lowered my hat down to my sunglasses and tried to run with tunnel vision. That seems to work the best for me when I'm racing. My feet did start to hurt and felt the blisters forming on my toes, not a fun feeling when I still had a 10k to go. But I kept chugging along and just did some brief walks at the aid stations. Positive thoughts, count, and even thinking about my 100 mile race, to keep my mind occupied and keep me moving along. At the last 10k also, the sun was beating down and the sprinkles were a welcomed relief. So with a time of 2:04 I was done with the run.

After the finish line, I thought about going to the medical tent to get some "ICE" relief, but found relief at a shady tree instead and trying not to fall over also.

So by the numbers: 5:54:14 total time.

At the High Cliff Half IM 4 weeks ago: 6:25.

So I knocked off 30 minutes at Racine. Woohoo!!!

Not the fastest time in the world, since most of my TRI teammates went under 5:30, but I'm happy with the results. My goal was just to go under 6 hours at Racine and start feeling like a triathlete once again. So both were accomplished that day.

So what's next, YUP, I'm officially signed up for the Great Illini Full distance, since it is not the corporate brand, they can't call it an IronMan, but the same distance nonetheless. I have massive work to do in less than 7 weeks. Not sure if there is something like an 7 week IM training plan, anybody know of any? So I guess I going have to make one up as I go along.

So why do it, to accomplish my goal for the year: Finish a 100 mile trail race and IM type race in the same year. The 100 miler was tough, but if I don't get my training mileage up, this IM/Full distance will be agonizing as well. But DAM IT, I want a IronMan PR at GREAT ILLINI, so I'm going to give it my best shot.

So let the adventure begin again because I'm finally running out of Bear Claw danishes, but NO worries the sugar rush should tie me over until after the 140.6 mile race, at least I hope so!

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." --Bruce Lee

"Festivities and back to Training"

I hope everybody had a happy 4th of July.. Mine was full of family activities and training.

2 neighborhood parades, one fireworks display, outlet mall shopping, and trying to get back in full training mode, made me a tired camper this whole weekend. But it was worth trying to balance family life with trying to put in as many miles of training as I could get in with 5:00am starts.

I also realized what neighborhood parades are all about. Throw out as much candy as you can and they will come. The mad dash was on for the kiddies and some adults for free candy. It was actually quite entertaining to watch that.

Training seems to be back on track. I received a sign, a sign to get my ass in gear. A sign in the form of a "bear claw" at the work vending machine. These precious gems only appear every couple of months at the work site, so yes, I bought all of them that was lined up in the vending machine. There is balance in my training regiment once again.

After this I knew I was on the right track.

I was able to get in some trail runs, cycling, and open water swimming this long weekend. 45 miles of running, with 38 miles of that within 4 days. I was not able to get in all the cycling I wanted to (75 miles), but miles nonetheless. Open water swimming is getting better, but I have decided to put more training emphasis on the bike and running portion for my races.

So in two weeks, I try to redeem myself at a Half IM event, The spirit Of Racine Half IM. It will be a big tri club race and some bloggers racing there as well. So I will do my best and use it as a training race for bigger things to come. So that is the plan, as long as I can stay away from the UltraRace sites I should be able to stay focused on the task at hand and sticking to triathlons for now.