Martial artist, Triathlete, IronMan, UltraRunner, Mostly Just Plain Craziness

2009-08-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

It's Time?

Well I have been MIA for a long while in blogland. But it was time to write about something again?

What Time is it? IRONMAN LOUISVILLE time. Since I will be racing with a bunch of friends from our training/triathlon group it has been re-dubbed "IRONMANIA".

Yes on August 30th at 7:00 am. I will try to swim 2.4 miles without a wetsuit. Okay that alone is making me nervous in itself!!

Eventhough this will be my 4th IronMan distance in 4 years in a row, I do still feel the excitement of it all.

This has been a crazy and emotional year for me personally. With the birth of my daughter who is now a little over 6 months old.

The death of a IronMan friend, for whom I will wear a "pink" bracelet on race day to remember her by.

Then the realization that my parents will not "live" forever has been a emotional one to say the least.

But "NO" complaints here, that is just "LIFE" and you deal what it gives you and make the best of it.

On the racing front, it has been a good racing year for me.

A 5k pr of 20:30,
A Half IronMan PR of 5:10, even though you can add about 10+ minutes due to the shortened swim., but still a bike avg PR of 21.6 during an Half IronMan.. Woohoo.

Then I survived the "warrior dash"!! It had mud, climbing walls, and more obstacles, I got to do it with one of my "BFF" friends,

An epic crazy year it has been.

I'am hoping for a IronMan PR race as well. I know I can finish an IM these days, so going trying to go faster than I have before will be my major goal.

But no matter how I cross that finish line I know I will shed a tear or two, because evethough IM is just a race in all that matters, the training has given me the outlet to endure this year, so when it is over and hopefully cross that IM finish line, I will say to myself "IT IS A GOOD DAY, ANY DAY IS GOOD TO BE ALIVE"!!!

So folks I'm number 2030 on the IronMan Louisville athlete roster. Race day coverage will be at IRONMAN LIVE!!

"GAME TIME" is NOW!!!

2009-06-03T20:47:00.000-07:00

Life is really too Short sometimes!!

In 2006, Michelle and me completed our 1st IM on the hills of Wisconsin.

Today my IronFriend lost her battle with Cancer.

I will remember seeing her on the IMWI bike course during the race, passing each other several times on the course. Battling through the wind, rain, and cold that day!! With a smile on her face she finished.

That is how I will remember her.

Rest in Peace, you will be missed.

July 21, 1967 - June 3. 2009

2009-05-14T12:35:00.000-07:00

So how do I start?

I left the house after 3:00am for the 90+ minute car ride to the start of the 28th annual Ice Age 50/50k races. I was surprised I still had some time to spare even though I missed a few turns getting there. But I was able to say hello to some of fellow runners of the Chicago UltraRunning group.

At 6:00am the customary “ready, set, go” was announced. Once I started I had one game plan, not to hurt myself to much, go slow, and just run how I felt. The 1st section of around 10 miles was pretty much cold, windy, and rainy. But I ran with Brain and Torey, so it made the miles seem not to bad out there for the 1st section at least. But I was having some equipment mechanical problems in a major way. In the 1st mile or so I tried to take a drink from my “camelbak” type hydration pack and pop outs the top of the drinking valve. So after slamming it back in, I was still leaking fluid which was running down the side of my jacket. So I tried to make the best of it, because the hydration pack also contained the rest of my nutritional needs as well. So running along, I would just put my thumb on top of it to minimize the leakage and sometimes run that way.

But after the 1st section, I decided to keep the hydration pack on and just change into a running vest. I figure I could manage the leaking and run with it. But around mile 15, my whole drinking valve ejects itself into the foliage and I said “wholly crap” I'm not going put that thing in my mouth anymore after rolling around in the dirt. So I kept on moving with just a tube stinking out as my source of liquid.

So at times I would try to suck the stuff out to get a drink, but the funny thing was that if I leaned over, it would gush out like a facet, I think I got some strange looks when that happened. So after a couple times of that, I knew I needed to rely on the aid stations to get my hydration needs. Oh "Yeah" time for a little experimentation?

Second Section:

The 2nd section was about 20 miles, it is the hardest of the three sections. Lots of rocks, roots, little muddy, but I was actually doing okay until mile 28 that is. Then I started to crash & burn, also getting desperate for an aid station, but I just tried to keep focused and also get through the aches and pains of running 28 miles at this point so far. Then finally getting to an aid station I was relieved and started to bounce back. Shoving Oreo cookies in my mouth helped as well.

Last Section:

So once I started the 3rd section I felt I could finish, even though I had around 20 mile to go, I felt good about the whole thing and physically my ankle was getting trashed from the down hills, my legs were feeling pretty good. So I just tried to block out the ankle pain as much as I could. I actually wore low-end compression socks for the 1st time in a race, and they seem to do the trick, no cramping so far in my calves, WooHooo!!

Miles just seem to tick away and at mile 40 I met up with Brain at the aid station. He asked me to run with him and so I said “sure”, misery does love company right?

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, then with a half mile to go I was feeling strong, so I tried to get to the finish line as fast as I could. I pushed through everything and with a time of 11:09 I was done. It was far from my PR for me on that course, but I just wanted to finish, so it was a good day for me in spite of the gear problems I was having.

It is my 3rd time finishing on the course, always great volunteers, great support, great food afterwards, and now I have 7 more years to go to get my 500 mile buckle there!!!

With that, I feel my UltraRunning membership card is renewed now, for at least another year!!

This was a race I was not ready for but felt in my heart I needed to do, 10% physical and 90% mental, pretty much sums up my race day as well.

So until next time and yes there is another Ultra somewhere in this schedule to be added.

Maybe North face 50 miler?

For now, I need to rest my ankles, they didn’t like all this running and with the Rockman half IM in 3 1/2 weeks, I think I need to find my triathlete MOJO once again.

2009-04-29T21:14:00.000-07:00

Howdy Folks, I figure I would blog about myself since my daddy has been busy trying to take care of me.

So what is my typical day in my life? After 10 weeks I'm sleeping a little better at night to the relief of my mommy and daddy. Still in the cycle of eating, pooping, having my diaper changed, and then going back to sleep, then of course repeat. I'm smiling a little more but still can't make the "DA DA" sounds which I will know will be my 1st words. But my mommy thinks otherwise.

Well daddy is still trying to train for his silly IronMan triathlon, Hmm, and my tender age, still don't see the point of all this exercise.

Then my daddy goes and register for this thing called an Ultra Marathon that will happen on May 9th. Something called the ICE AGE 50 miler. Still a little crazy in my book, but hopefully he will bring me home a shiny thing to play with. Plus it is always funny to see my daddy walk like a penguin after he does these crazy events.

So folks, It is time for cycle of sleep again, it was nice chatting with you and will catch you again when I wake up again. Being me is such a wonderful thing!

2009-03-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

ONE Month Ago!

It has been exactly one month ago when this little rugrat has entered our lives. It has bee quite interesting trying to get used to having a newborn in the house again. Lots of peeing, pooping, eating, and sleeping. I think the only difference between me and the rugrat is the lack of sleep on my part.

I actually have been on 4 weeks of company paid paternity leave, YES, I said 4 weeks off from work. So I have been helping the wife with diaper duties and have not done a DAM thing constructive around the house. But the 4 weeks will be soon coming to an end.

I'm up about 15+ pounds in my weight and maybe being at work will help me not have the urge to eat all the time during the day.

Also it is time to start IM training again, IM Louisville is still on the race schedule so I need to get some training sessions in between all the family LIFE.

Not sure how the trail racing schedule will be this year, but see how it goes, but the Ultra's are calling my NAME.

Now time for a quick nap again.

2009-02-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

"tiny hands, tiny feet
i've waited so long for us to meet
who could've known a love so true
i'd given up hope, then along came you
innocent and perfect, you're safe within my arms
I'll watch over and protect you, i'll keep you safe from harm
with mischief in your smile and wonder in your eyes
watching you as you sleep, feeling every sigh
i could look at you for hours and always be content.
you became my living angel when you were heaven sent.
just the thought of you, makes my world seem full..
you are my life, my love," my daughter
my precious Taylor. ~ Modified Version ~ A Godson's Love© Samantha Richter

It was a scheduled c-section and the nurse asked me if I was alright after awhile in the operation room. But no fainting on my part and wife was a real trooper through the whole thing. Not sure if I could go through that.

Wife and new RugRat are doing great though.

Thanks everybody for the well wishes. Now the fun begins with life full of diapers, pooping, and lack of sleep. Oh yeah!!! Bring it ON..

2009-02-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

Time is NEAR!

Yes the time is near for the new rugrat to enter the Bubba household. Seven days and counting to be exact.

Are we totally ready, not quiet sure. Sure the newborn clothes have been sorted out and pampers are ready to be worn. What else does a newborn actually need besides the essentials.

Are we freaked out, not really, maybe because it will be our second child. But it has been a long road to get to this point so I'm sure we will be overcome with emotion when we see our rugrat for the first time.

Hmm, name yet? Have some ideas, 2 to 3 to be exact, but nothing special or crazy like what the celebrities call their kids nowadays. But "Xenia" the warrior princess did cross my mind. She is a strong women who does not take any crap and since my dogs are named after Greek mythology/characters as well, it was just a thought. We shall see?

On the training aspect, I'm starting to get my body used to training for an IronMan again. The three plus times a week on each sport does take a lot of energy to pull off on a weekly basis.

My twinges or injuries are still chronic. Plantar fasciitis I feel will take forever to go away. But I can run, just the aftermath is a little painful, but getting a little better.

Still waiting for this dang cold weather to break or get around 50 degrees to take out my "baby" as well for a little ride. My "baby" or winter project is complete now. So this year a new ride will hopefully make me faster or at least more comfy on the longer distance races.

So when I got this it was like this:

So with keeping FedEx, postal service, and course Ebay stimulated with my cash. My new ride has becomes this.

Mechanic: Bubba

Ebay Cost: Cha-ching $$$$

Retail price Bigger Cha-Ching $$$$$

Getting passed by a old guy in a 10 year old Schwinn : It will be PRICELESS

2009-01-19T06:16:00.000-08:00

Countdown!!

I went to the kiddo's old room the other day and looked in the closet for some reason. Then I said "Wholly Crap", four weeks is the countdown these days for another rugrat to enter this crazy world of ours.

In all honestly, me and the wife are not freaked out of what is heading towards our way. Hmm, maybe the freak out will happen that day!

But as you can tell from the clothes, I don't think I would dress a specific gender in a tutu so guess what rugrat I will have to put another GPS signal on when they become a teenager. So with that said, I get to name the rugrat, so any suggestions on a name would be appreciated. I have some ideas but throwing a dart at the baby name book was not appreciated by the wifey.

On the training front, my running/training has been like my blogging. Sporadic at best. But trying to start out slowly as I'm still trying to recover from my plantar facilities ailments.

But I have had some winter training runs in the past two weeks. 9.5 miles in 18 degree weather yesterday. And a 6 mile snowshoe run last weekend. They do come in handy these days.

I need to burn off these 10+ lbs of holiday pounds that I recently discovered.

Now I hope everybody is staying warm and forgive me for not keeping up with your blogs. I need to get more of that in as well.

2008-12-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

Minus?

What does that all mean. Well these days I'm sure everybody is getting hit with freezing temps and lots of snow.

So Chicago was no exception. It was around -7 when I left the house Sunday for our weekly triathlon club run. Did not expect alot of people to show up, but e-mailed my friend kickstandPam to see if she was still going.

"No matter how cold it is, I will be there!"

That was all the motivation I needed to get out of bed.

There was only 3 of us to brave the cold. We ran around the streets trying to get warm. But honestly after awhile it was not to bad.

So after 40 minutes the two of them headed home, and yeah my love of running made me decided to run a little more. But I was wondering what I was still doing out there?

But a fun time and a frozen face. Friends to run with and the holidays to spend family with. No matter how cold it is how can you not enjoy that.

So everybody out there, Merry Christmas and happy holidays!!!

It will be the last time in the Bubba household that there will be only the 3 of us. Because next year there will baby Bubba to watch over and an extra gift Santa Clause will have to bring when he stops over our house for some milk and cookies. But I always do tell my kid, Santa Clause really likes cheese danishes instead.

2008-12-08T03:16:00.000-08:00

2009!!

I have had a little bit of hiatus from blogging, but I had the urge to blog. (Actually been fascinated with FaceBook, anybody else?)

I have taken it easier since my last race, pretty much from Ultra Runner to Ultra Lazy. Working out when I can and trying to run faster in the process. Which caused me to aggravate my chronic issues on my good foot. The dreaded plantar fasciitis, so that has sidelined me a little more and contributed more to the my fascination with junk food over the holidays as well.

But in a couple of weeks, the new year will be arriving and plans for 2009 have already been set in motion.

So for 2009 I have traded the cows for the horses and heading down to tackle Iron Man Louisville. Should be a great time with several people from the triathlon club racing as well. Time to go under 12:30 or at least try anyways. So that will be my focus for the 2009 racing season, and to hopefully still keep my Ultra Running card active, tackle a local 50 miler as well.

But before then, an epic endurance adventure will begin in February of 2009. A journey that will test my endurance, patience, produce some tense moments, and of course produce a range of emotions, as I will try to endure this great adventure once again with a little bit of sanity.

The stork will be arriving to drop off it's extra care package at the end of February. Yup another RUGRAT to add to the clan.

So busy times ahead, something I'm looking forward to but a little bit nervous to endure as well.

So two major adventures next year, one my "A" race in life and the other my "A" race in my endurence life.

Let the adventure begin and getting used to lack of sleep once again.

Now time to read what you other bloggers have been up to?

2008-11-07T03:44:00.000-08:00

Brick by Brick!

That is what I thought about last weekend at the Lakefront 50 miler. One step at a time, one brick at a time until I finished.

The race started at 6:30am. With the customary pledge before every race repeated by all the runners this day.

"There is no place we rather be, than be with you here today"

We were off. The plan like most of my Ultras is just to run as I feel and see how it goes. It actually started off as a nice day. The race was 4 loops of 12.5 miles and all paved with some soft running path to ease the feet a little bit.

The first loop was going pretty well. Felt pretty good the 1st 10k and even negative split the second part of the 1st loop and ended up coming in at 2 hrs. So maybe I thought I could run a PR today. But the day just begun so anything could happen.

The second loop went pretty good as well. Running a little slower because I knew I still had long way to go, but with the second loop finished I clocked in with a 4:07 time for 25 miles. Hmm maybe an 8:30 finishing time was a possibility.

Then on the 3rd loop, the drama began. I knew it would, because I seem to usually start bonking mentally and physically around 30 miles into an Ultra Marathon. I was running a little slower and walking a little more. My ankles and feet were hurting a little more from all the "Bricks" I have logged under my feet so far.

Around mile 32 I started to pick it up a little bit and was experiencing no cramping at all, but was getting a little bit sleepy out there. I could have stopped and taken a nap along the race course, for sure. So I needed to wake up so I took a chance and ate some Oreo cookies to get more calories in me. I usually stick to what I know concerning nutrition, but I took a chance. The cookies actually made me feel better, than at the next aid station I ate more of them. My pace was consistent but I also started to feel more ankle pain from all the hard pounding.

But I was able to move along and finally finished the 3rd loop, albeit a little slower. One more to go, WooHoo, I just wanted to get to the 10k turnaround and I knew I would be okay. The temps seemed to drop and winds seemed to get stronger with 12.5 miles to go. I was getting cold and more tired and not having a good time out there.

"Where the hell is that final turnaround???" I kept asking myself. With another 10 more miles to go it could not come soon enough, because I was getting a little beat down.

Then at last, the turnaround, another 10k to go. I tried running a little more and just focus on my steps ahead. The headwind became a little bit of a tailwind now so it made the journey back a little bit easier.

One aid station at a time: 3 left, then 2, then 1 left. One more mile to go, I tried picking up the pace a little more. With not to far to go, I actually got a little choked up, just thinking this would be my last ultra for the year and the journey I have been through so far.

I sprinted in and finished in 9 hours and 13 minutes. 14 minutes off my PR from last year. But I will take it, even though I thought I could maybe finish in at 8:30, then my thoughts were maybe 8:45, then just get me under 9 hours, then I finally realized it did not matter what time it was as long it had a finishing time next to it. I did come in 29Th out 76 people who actually finished. There was another 20+ runners who DNF'ed of DNS'ed so a good day in my book.

I was glad it was over. The aftermath was a bit painful thou, my feet and ankles were in pain and a bit swollen and could not really sleep for two days. But like anything else, I feel active recovery works best for me after my Ultra races.

So with a 6 mile trail run 3 days after the race. I will take it a bit easy and look forward to the 2009 race schedule. For now, I'm going to run a little during the winter so I can watch the leaves fall to the ground for now.

Gotta luv those fall weather trail runs!

2008-11-02T21:14:00.001-08:00

Finally!!

It's finally here, the day before the election. Let all the madness stop and get on with this. I have watched all the debates, been clued to CNN and Headline news. Formed an opinion and hope to god it was the right one.

But I'm tired of all the campaigning from both sides. I'm actually glad I don't live in one of the battleground states and not overly bombarded with campaign commercials. Or is it just me tuning those commercial out lately.

So go out and VOTE. I will and maybe go for a leisurely bike ride afterwards. Because YES!! I get a paid day off from work to do my civic duty. Woohoo.

But all I really want after this election is one thing and one thing only..

I gotta get one of those CNN magic boards. How much fun would that be to have one of those things. Have you seen what these touchy screens can do.

Next post, I will be back to my regular scheduled bloggy program with a race report of the Lakefront 50 miler I did on Saturday. All I got to say is, my feet are killing me. Somebody PLEASE remind me not run these many miles on concrete again.

2008-10-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

My Pet Rock!

So last Saturday morning, Caroline and me left early to get to the FARMDALE 33 mile trail race site.

There was some familiar faces there. Because this would be the last race I had to finish for the IL. Trail Grand Slam race series.

There was two separate races that day. A 8 miler and the 33 mile Ultra. We all started together, so there was some congestion early on the single track portions of the race.

Then at one point there was a split, which was kind of interesting, because at one point there was a whole bunch of us running together, then in a instant I was all alone on the trails. I saw somebody in the distance, so I was assured that I did not make a wrong turn.

While I was running I happen to look back and saw Caroline hot on my heels, she was still about a quarter mile away, so I yelled out "Heyyyyy". So after that I ran a couple of more steps, then I tripped over a tree root and down I go face forward into the leaves. I used my hands to break my fall, which was not a smart move, because my elbow felt a little stiff the rest of the race.

So have not run this race before I did not know what to expect. It was mostly single track, being "Fall" weather, all the leaves were covering up all the obstacles on the ground, thus making people, like me, prone to fall on their ass. There was a 20 foot wide shallow water crossing, not to bad but cold nonetheless. Then there was 2 to 3 smaller water crossings. So three loops of that made for some cold wet feet. It was alot more technical than I thought it would be with alot of switchbacks and small hills one after another. It was entertaining to run because you had to be alert during the entire race but draining after awhile.

I actually ran the 1st loop well, getting slower the 2ND, and of course, just trying to hold on the 3rd loop.

But with a finishing time of 6:29:17, (25th out of 66 starters), 33.6 miles was done.

I was pretty glad to finish, because that concluded the trail race series. Not sure how many people started this 1st annual event, but around 20 of us were able to complete the whole thing.

(That's me in the back next to Chris M.(tall guy in red shirt, creator of the slam series) . A big ThankYou to him to setting this all up)

I think I placed 5th among the men (out of 13) in the series. So "whoot" "whoot" to that.

It was actually pretty fun being in a race series. Seeing the same faces at each race and doing some new races I would not have never done before if it was not for the race series.

Then as an added bonus, I got some unique finisher's "bling" along the way. A hobo 50k tin cup, 100 mile buckle, finisher's 50k medal, and of course my "pet" rock.

So what's next, Me and my pet rock took a little break, but now time to get moving again and get ready for probably my last long "ASS" race for the year, The Lakefront 50 miler,

A little SAD just thinking about it, but I think my mind and body needs a much needed rest after that.

2008-10-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

Back to my regular scheduled off-season!

Just back from a mini-vacation with the family in Florida.

Of course we had to visit Disney World for the 20th plus time. Not sure how we spent 10+ hours at the Magic Kingdom theme park, I guess time flies when you are having fun.

Here is a pic of the kiddo with "Ariel" from the Little Mermaid after waiting 50 minutes to get her autograph. The weird thing was two adult men in front of us waiting 50 minutes as well to get a picture with her as well. Hmm, is it me or is that kinda of strange, I think I would rather be waiting 50 minutes to ride the space mountain roller coaster.

So this weekend is the final installment of the Illinois Grand Slam trail series. The Farmdale 33 miler. More fun on the trails. Not sure how it is going to go again, because I have switched to some Cuban pastries I got from Florida for energy food instead of my standard apple danishes. So will see how it all works out.

But just going to have some fun out there like I did two weeks ago at the Hobo 50k and hopefully hold on to my 4th place status in the race series among the men.

Then two weeks later get ready for the Lakefront 50 mile road ultra. This might be easier than a trail 50 miler but will hurt a little more.

So on a last note, here is a little endurance inspiration. David Goggins is a Ultra Runner/Endurance BAD ASS. He just completed Kona and broke the course record at the 150 mile McNaughton trail race earlier this year. I was running the 100 mile at the same time and saw his film crew throughout the race. So here is video documenting his journey along with his t-shirt saying "Show No Weakness", gotta luv that!

2008-09-29T21:32:00.001-07:00

Back on the Trail Again!

It's been awhile, So Sunday was the Hobo 50k. It was the 3rd in the 4 race series of the Illinois Grand Slam trail series.

Not sure how it was going to go, because I have been pretty lazy since my Great Illini IM race three weeks ago.

So I meet up with one of the Chia runners, Brian, to do some representing for the club.

The normal start was Race director saying "GO".

I started off at 10:00 min pace a tried to hold around a low zone 3 heart rate. It was two 15.5 loops with one water crossing. I actually ran pretty well the 1st loop, very minimal walking on the hills and felt pretty strong most of the time.

Then the dreaded second loop. Just tried to keep a descent pace and walked a little bit more on the hills. I was waiting for some cramping to creep up on me. But it never did happen. I did start to feel all the twist and turns on my ankles a little more. But I got through it pretty well. The thing about racing for 5+ hours, there are always good and bad moments and have to keep reminding myself of that.

But I must say the last 5k was not to fun. Walked a little more and was hoping to break 6 hours for the 1st time at this trail ultra distance.

With a finishing time of 5:44, I got myself a 15+ minute PR. Felt pretty good about that, since I trained less and pretty much ate apple danishes for the past 3 weeks, then get a PR. I might have to stick with this training plan.

Overall the race was pretty good event, the aid stations was pretty sparse, but had HOBO stew and a HOBO beggars tin cup as our finishing award.
(me and Brian after the Finish)

And yes they even had some apple strudel danishes for post race goodies. So I will be back.

2008-09-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

Great Illini Full Distance Triathlon...

It has been a week since I have done this IM type of thingy, so here goes a brief race report.

The swim:

I think there were over 70 racers that showed up for the Full Distance event, another 200 who raced the Half distance event. So I figured it would not be a washing machine like IM swim's usually are. So somehow I started in the inside and just tried to keep a steady pace. It was a two loop trip, for a small group I sure did get hit a couple of times. One guy tried to swim into me, not once but twice, I looked up and he was alot older than me, so I didn't get to pissed about it. It was actually a relaxing swim for me, but I had a hard time staying in a straight line, veering off very wide at times because I had less people to guide off.

I actually thought I had a good swim, but 1:36:57 was a slow IM swim time, all the bikes were gone in my age group rack, that is never a fun feeling. Going to have to work on it alot harder next year and trying to swim straight in my races.

T2: 04:12

I had decided to put on my bike shorts over some running tights and applied some "butt creme" for the long ride. I did hear some teenagers or little kids in the background so I felt a little uncomfortable sticking my hand down my pants to apply the creme, but you do what you got to do right?

Bike:

I actually was not sure how this would go, my longest ride going into this was 89 miles over a month ago. So I knew my "bonking" was coming, just not sure when it would happen. Everything was going well than I started to slow down considerably around the 25 mile mark. I looked down and CRAP my tire was half flat. What to do? I actually made the decision to just pump a CO2 cartridge in the tire and see if it would hold up. So that is how I rode. Every 20+ miles or so I checked my tire, just to make sure it was still inflated, so getting off the bike was a routine I was getting into. Hmm, maybe I should have changed my tire, but I went with the moment.

Well after mile 80, I knew this coming, I was getting tired and my legs were cramping and the bike ride became a little bit of an ordeal after that. But I made it through even with one close encounter with some old lady driving her car trying to pass a car who was also passing a cyclist heading right towards me, WTF.

Bike time was 6:48:17.65 (16.5mph).

T2: 03:44.85, transition went alot smoother and just went with my cycling bandanna instead of my lucky IM hat for the run, ahh yeah I think I should have worn my hat.

Run:

After the bike, I saw I was at 8:33hrs, so if I had a decent run maybe I could finish at 13 hrs. But that quickly faded after mile 3. I had no more energy on the run. I was getting tired and not sure what was happening. Just did not have the legs to run. So loop 1, 2, and 3, became an real ordeal, a test of my mental resolve for sure. Just trying to run to each aid station was my goal. Tried changing my nutrition and "yelling at my myself", "happy thoughts", even double espresso Cliff shots. I just could not run long periods at a steady pace. Then my last loop came, it was starting to get dark and I was tired of being out there. So CRAP, WTF, it's dark out here, I needed to run, GOD DAMMIT!! and so I did!!! Not a great pace, but my best split time for sure was in the final loop. So in the darkness of night I ran in with a marathon time of 5:06:43 (my slowest IM marathon time).

Finish time was 13:39:56! In the grand scheme of things not a bad time actually, but felt I should have done better. But then again I didn't put in half the work I did to get a 13:07 at Iron Man Wisconsin in 2007. So I'll take it.

I do have many thoughts these days after finishing the Great Illini Full Distance triathlon. It was less frills than the corporate M-dot IM races. But it was well run and I did not get lost along the course. No 10+ volunteers waiting for you at the finish line, I had to actually go get my finisher's award myself. But maybe one day I will be back, because above all else it was a well organized triathlon race.

But I have to say, I was a little disappointed with my results, but upon reflection I trained less than 10 weeks for this and just wanted to have a respectable finishing time, so I did accomplish that goal.

A Goal that started with a podcast I listened to about a person who completed a 100 mile ultra Marathon and Iron Man race in the same year.

I thought to myself, I could do this. So with a grin on my face, I guess I did it. Now with one or two smaller goals for the rest of the year, I look forward in accomplishing these things as well.

2008-09-07T20:28:00.000-07:00

Seriously, this stuff HURTS?

My finisher plaque says "I Endured The Great Illini (2.4 swim, 112 bike, 26.2 run)"

Boy, was it ever!!! I tested every ounce of my endurance and sheer willingness to just keep going forward.

I was under trained mentally and physically for the race. I knew it, but wanted to give it a shot and see what happened.

But I did have some race goals, I thought I could go under 13 hours, I guess my mind was thinking one thing but my body decided something else.

I had some mechanical bike issues, cramping issues, and at the end felt like hurling all the espresso gels I consumed during the run.

But I finished in 13:39:56..

6 people in age division, 6Th place, woohooo, tough crowd, I guess. No matter..

I didn't hear "Bubba your an Iron Man" when I crossed the finish line.

But feel like a DAM sore one. So I'll take it.

Race report coming soon, but for now I need some rest both physically and mentally. While trying to get ready for a 50k Ultra in 3 weeks.

2008-09-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

"GAME TIME"

It's "game time" this weekend. Not sure what to call it, an Iron Man race, a 140.6 triathlon, whatever it will become it will be a long "ASS" race for sure. And that's how I'm going to treat it.

I started to train for this 10 weeks ago and see how it would it turn out? But I must tell you I wish I had more time. 10 weeks is not enough time to train for a 10+ hour triathlon.

But adjustments were made, most of my "ASS" pain that travelled down my leg has for the most part subsided. A big celebration on that..

I had to stop running for two weeks to make it go away, so my marathon run after cycling 112 miles will be quite interesting to say the least.

The course is pretty much flat and the weather is looking good. What else can I ask for.

Two loops swim,

Two loop Bike,

Four Loop run course,

Sound easy enough? Okay not that easy.. But I will get through it and do my best.

"A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more." ~ Steve Prefontaine

Life is good, because after this weekend I'm back on the trails for somemore Ultra fun.

Good luck to all my bud's racing IronMan Wisconsin on Sunday!!

2008-08-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Random things

It has been awhile since I posted on my blog, but work and training for this 140.6 race that is happening in less than 2 weeks has been time consuming.

I wish all was well, but I will be a bit dinged going into the race. As I can tell, I pinched a muscle in my "ASS" or maybe my sciatic nerve. I must tell you this is not fun, hurts when I walk or even try to run, but seems to be okay or more tolerable when I swim or bike. But what can I do, I'm not going to cry about it, okay maybe a little bit. Just do some non-impact simulated running workouts and see what happens on race day.

Other random things happened, my kid is now a year older. Actually learned how to ride a two wheeled bike. I must say that is one of the most nerve racking things I have witnessed in a long time.
But she finally is getting the hang of it and trying to be speed a demon these day. Hmm, they do have track cycling for women in the Olympics!

Other random thoughts is that I received a cool set of product freebies from sof sole. They make over the counter orthopedic soles, socks, and some other fun things. I'm actually not a big Orthotic wearer, even thou I have been prescribed some custom ones by my doctor. I do think strengthening your foot by wearing a minimal shoe, running barefoot, and crazy stuff like that is the best medicine for preventing future injuries. But I know I needed a little bit of something, and these seemed to do the trick. They worked well and gave me the extra support I needed (and NO these where not the cause of my current injury) . The heat molded pair was interesting to configure but hugged my foot well and gave me the additional support as well. So a thumbs up to the SofSole products, and look forward to wearing them in the future during my races. Now if it can also fix up my "ASS" injury as well, I would be a totally happy man, but for now I will settle for the soles to help me with my chronic ankle tendentious.

So for now that is all the randomness I can think off. In a week or two I will be posting my future racing plans for 2009. Maybe not as grand as this year, but will be an adventure, because there is no other option to live your life. I think so anyways. Don't you agree?

2008-08-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

My last Minute Brick Workout.

I was debating to sign up for the this last minute Brick workout all week long. It was close to the house and they gave out a tie-dyed race shirt. So I signed up for it, The Bangs Lake Olympic triathlon.

A new race in the Chicagoland area and why not give it a try. I have not done a Olympic Triathlon in about 3 years, so I just planned to use it to get some racing in before my 140.6 Triathlon Race.

I knew I still need to be focused on the later race, so I decided to goof off from work and rode 5 hours/82 miles on Friday. A open water swim on Saturday and Olympic race on Sunday.

So I was not sure how the race would really go for me.

I woke up for a short 45 minute drive to the race sight. I had some doubts about finding the area because of some kind of pissing contest, another Olympic race was starting in the same area. So confusing trying to find the correct race site.

Race:

I was in the second wave, 40 and up. Once we started we took a sharp turn swimming right into the sun. Total crap, I could not see to far ahead and just tried to find the rest of the bobbing heads out there. The turn buoy was about a half mile out, so not to much to guide off the entire swim. Not sure if I was swimming straight, most of the time just wondering if I was going the right way. Alot of people complained about the swim after the race, not enough buoys, yada, yada, yada, but my swim time was 38:15, so anything under 40 minutes is good enough for me.

T1 was 1:38, uneventful except I was still wet from the swim because I could not mount the bike and was not looking pretty sliding on my bike trying to clip in.

The bike was going to be interesting, I forgot my Garmin 305 at home, so I had no cadence, heart rate, or any type of GPS tech stuff to track my progress. What the hell, just pedal until it hurts and then back off and then repeat. The race website said it was a tough bike route, but how can it be? well I guess I found out, it was pretty much a two loop roller hill fest. Nothing steep by some standards, but by Chicago standards, we call it a hill. I actually felt pretty good on the bike, felt really weird jut riding a 40k, but I liked it. I finished in 1:14:43, a 20 mph avg, dang good for me, especially after riding 82 miles on Friday.

T2 was 1:27, not to bad, how do people go under 1:00, how can you do that?

The run, here comes the test to see if I'm fatigued or not. I started out well, no cramping at all, something I have problems at the half IM races. There was some rollers on the run course as well, but I was chugging along at a descent pace. Still with no gadget to track my progress, I had no idea how fast I was going, but I was passing people, so that was a good thing. Final run time, a shocker to me, 46:49, a 7:33 pace, definitely a PR, woohoo...

So total time was 2:42:50, not to bad, might be a PR, I think so? but the most important thing is that I had a good day. I think I'm liking these shorter races. Hmm, might have to add one or two Olympics Tri's in the 2009 schedule.

For a brand new event, there was some things they need to tweak, but overall, a good race. The site of the other Olympic going on the same time, with the racers on the other side of the street going the opposite direction on the bike was definitely a interesting experience. Dueling triathlons, they going to have to fix the squabble among who is going to have a race that day.

But I got some cool goodies from the race; a race hat, Tri gear bag, and of course a Tie-dyed race shirt, with tunes of Jerry Garcia playing in the background after the race. Gotta luv it.

2008-08-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

Never Enough Sugar?

I have had these two boxes in my fridge for the past week. One containing a cheese danish the size of a pizza and the other one contained my leftover birthday cake.

I do have a really bad neurotic vice (besides my endurance racing one), I don't like seeing any food go to waste. So as of today, one box is empty, part of the cake is still left. Yes, I have eaten about 95% of both boxes.

Then washing it down with 99 cent Arizona Ice teas, I think they have about 34 grams of sugar in one can. So is to much sugar really bad for you? I think not, or maybe just not off my sugar high just yet.

It actually has helped me get through my training last week. Trying to train for a IronMan type race on short notice has not been easy. But why not?

So "sugar" has been my friend.

18 hours of training last week.
161 miles of cycling for the week.
28 miles of running.. (A little short of my miles per week goal)
choppy 2 mile open water swim on Lake Michigan.

Not sure what I'm doing is good or bad concerning training , junk vs. quality? Time will tell on that one.

But I'm hyped up and pretty excited about my 140.6 triathlon in 5 short weeks.

So now to get back on the bike trainer and eat a slice of cake afterwards. I guess addiction does have it 's rewards sometimes.

PS. If you have any leftovers with lots of sugar in it don't forget to send it my way, or will exchange for healthy food that's sitting in my fridge.

2008-07-29T03:30:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-07-21T22:13:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

"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.

2008-06-25T03:34:00.000-07:00

Half IM WakeUp CALL!!

So on Sunday I completed my 1st triathlon of the season. The High Cliff Half IronMan.

I was signed up for the Mohican 100, but things changed so I figured what the hell, I can do a Half IM with little training, NO PROBLEM!!

I setted out for my 3 hour drive to the race early that morning. It was going to be a beautiful morning. I really hoped I had everything, because I felt like a real newbie getting my transitions setup next to my bike.

After that I went for a easy swim warm up. The water was pretty green, pretty green with algae, thick enough that you could not see your hands sometimes. So I was thinking, I know I'm going to have some of this inside of my mouth, kinda of gross, but unavoidable. So what does happen when you possibly swallow algae? Do you start peeing green or something like that?

So registering late I was barley in the 11th wave start out of 12. With the 12th wave only having a few people. So 20+ minutes later, I was off trying to complete my longest swim of the year.

I had this theory of swimming outside so not to get hit that much. Which usually works for me, but I was zigzagging everywhere and going way outside swimming more of a distance I should have been. But I tried to swim the best I could and just stay relaxed out there. Then on the last turn I saw one of the support Kayak's. So why is this Kayak paddling parallel to me?

"Total crap-ola" I must be the last swimmer out there. Now I was disgusted, I knew I was a slow swimmer, but dang it was not a fun feeling. Eventually the kayak stopped paddling in, meaning I was not the D.F.L. swimmer. So I looked back after exiting the water. I only beat a couple of people. I was pretty disgusted and walk to my lonely bike at T1.

So off to the 56 mile bike I go. My longest ride to this point was 30 miles, so I was not sure how fast I would be able to go, but I set time goals for myself nonetheless. So after I started on the bike I started sneezing and getting a runny nose. Shit!, was I getting a cold or having allergies. For the entire bike ride, SNOT was running down my nose in a steady manner. Pretty annoying and I was not having any type of fun out there. I was able to hold a steady 18-19mph pace the first 30 miles, but then the wheels fell off, and I was getting fatigued on the bike, and my avg bike pace dropped dramatically. My body ached alot from trying to stay in an aero position and I just wanted to click my bike shoes so they could change into trail shoes and go for a easy trail run.

So after a slow ASS bike ride, almost wiping out at one point because I was not paying attention to the road, I was agonizingly done.

So after T2 and putting my trail shoes on, I was off. I knew alot of the 13.1 mile run was on trails, but could not really remember how much it was. So the signature of the race is a big long hill after T1 and T2. So we had to bike and now run up it. My trail instincts kicked in and I ran/walked up the hill.

So after that, I had some peace of mind, a comfort zone at least. I was running on trails now, even thou my quads were cramping from the bike ride I tried to keep a steady pace. Lots of shaded trees and softer surfaces made it feel like "home to me". I guess that comfort zone was really kicking in.

So after a decent 13.1 trail run, I was done with a time of 6 hours 25 minutes. My second slowest Half IM race to date. Slower than my race time 2 years ago on the same course. So I was a little bummed about the whole time thingy.

But I got my "Wake up" call to start triathlon training. Uhhh, ultra trail training, makes you a better runner, but not really a better swimmer or biker. Ding! Ding! daaa..

So with my plans to finish a non-corporate labeled IronMan by the start of winter (The great Illini). I really need to start triathlon specific training. Even though I finished the race, I was not a "happy camper" during the race.

I do have PR race goals for IronMan as well, besides just finishing it. I will still trail run and maybe do a trail race before that, but I need a better training balance these days with lots more swimming and cycling.

Because I guess there is something to race specific training and suffering less. I think I needed this race to remind myself of that theory once again.

2008-06-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

Life is a Box of Chocolate?

Sometimes you do not know what you get until you open the box.

That is what this racing year has been for me. A little unexpected and having to shift my endurance training/racing schedule when needed.

So with my impulsive nature, I signed up for the Mohican 100 miler, now the reality to D.N.S. (Do not Start) this weekend has become my box of chocolate's this weekend.

This little prize will elude me for this year. But one day I will be back for it.

But I do have to remind myself, family does come first, even though the urge to shift the weight of this thing they call having some sort of "Balanced family Life" does overcome me sometimes. But not this time.

So what do I do, just sit down and eat the rest of the chocolates while everybody else is burning the calories from theirs. Hmm, I guess that is not in my nature?

So in the interest of keeping my "family life" in balance, I'm going to register for a closer race that allows me to be home later in the day, then be home two days later.

So with a my credit card going "ouchie", I'm jumping into the triathlon scene with full force.

Unprepared more for this than a 100 mile Ultra Marathon. So here, "HIGH CLIFF HALF IRONMAN Triathlon" here is my money.

Okay that was a little painful since I paid for the Mohican 100 already, Oh well, C'mon government stimulus check.

So with little swimming, even less biking, I'm going to try to swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles for the first time this year on Sunday. Running 13.1 miles, I think I'm trained for a little bit of that.

So that's the weekend for me. With people doing IronMan CDA, my tri-group doing a local duathlon, and my Ultra friends tackling their 1st 100 miler.

I needed to be out there racing somewhere. So with a couple of more clicks of the button I will be on Sunday. It will be slow, but I will be moving forward.

2008-06-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

Back to What I know?

Knock, Knock?

Who's there?

Yes, it's me, BUBBA is still in blog land. Life has been busy, with work, and most importantly with house duties around the house that has kept me from blog world for a week or two.

I have been getting a kick seeing my daughter running her own races and youth runs the past two weeks.

But have been feeling not myself lately not having a long-ass race to do each month.

But I think I have done it this time. Unprepared mentally and physically, I going to try to do this.

THE "MOHICAN 100 Mile Trail Run"

Honestly I have put up the white flag of sorts as a backup plan. Eventhou I signed up for the "Big Show", the 100 miler, I could drop down to the 50 miler and get credit and get a little "bling bling" if I just finish that much. But if I go one foot past 50 miles, I going for the 100 miler for sure.

So why do it? Mostly because I believe in "opportunities", you have to take the plunge sometimes and hope for the best.

So in less than 10 days, YES 10 days people, I'm going to try to run an Ultra in the middle of the summer for the 1st time.

Mosquito's, poison Ivy, my own allergies, and all those other warm blooded creatures that go bump in the night. Sometimes I wonder why I just sign up for things.

But I had to post this cartoon and quote from Rachel's blog. I guess this explains why most of all I have the urge to run for that long again.

And my 100 Mile race plan goes like this:

"If you can't run, then walk. And if you can't walk, then crawl. Do what you have to do. Just keep moving forward and never, ever give up."--Dean Karnazes Ultramarathon Man

Sound simple enough, RIGHT?

2008-05-28T03:24:00.000-07:00

Back to Back Runs!!

It was the 1st annual back to back run? Not for me but for my little munchkin.

Every memorial day there is a local 10k/5k. I usually run one of them, but this year it was my daughters turn (NO, not the 10k/ or 5k). Since she is 5 I was a little bit apprehensive in entering her in the 1 mile youth run since it was supposed to be from 7 to 14 years. But why not, as long as I ran with her she was willing to give it a try.

So at 8:10am the 1 mile race took place, I held her hand in the beginning running alongside with her. Then I let her run on her own, as a young energetic kid does, she tries to run as hard as possible. I was to thinking to myself, I really hope she is at least will able to make it to the turnaround. But she did and we headed toward the finish line still running. At this point she was passing some kids along the way. People were clapping and I was really having a great time running with her. So with a time of 12:27 she finished her 1st official long race. Woohoo, I was a very proud DADDY indeed.

Then I enticed her with more goodies if she ran the tot run. After some time in the inflatable bouncy thing, she was ready to go and finished the 100 yard tot run.

Yup, back to back runs are now complete. OMG, I'm such a "meanie", having her run that much, but she was no worst for wear and we had a great family day.

Well, what's up with me? I have been a little bit at a crossroads as of late concerning my racing schedule. I was going to try to get a marathon program going to try to Qualify for the Boston marathon. But the path I've set for myself this year has been an "ULTRA MARATHON" one, just to hard right now to try to train for BQ speed and 50+ mile Ultras, plus the Great Illini "Iron Man" triathlon is only 15 weeks away as well.

So with that said another Ultra is lurking on the horizon, not sure which distance yet, but the 3 numbered digit version might be on the ever changing race schedule. Just have to figure out if I have the mental fortitude and running legs to go through one of those again, but I have about a week to decide so I can register at a decent price range.

Until then I'll try to keep doing what I've been used to: run, bike, and swim at my own leisurely pace.

2008-05-13T21:26:00.000-07:00

D.F.L. at Ice Age?

So on Saturday was the 27Th annual running of the ICE AGE trail 50/50k mile ultra. Imagine that, an ultra race being around that long.

This was to be my second running of the race. So I asked my running/training partner Caroline if she wanted me to pace/crew/run with her during the 50 mile race. She just had done the McNaughton 50 miler, but was not really satisfied on how she finished that race. So to make amends she wanted to complete the Ice Age 50 miler as well.

We actually got there with lots of time to spare to get our gear and pick up our race packets. After going to the porta-john and almost loosing my wallet near the same place, with about $200 in it, I was finally ready to head to the starting line. (pic courtesy of Mary G.)

Before the race, the Race director was acknowledging some of the 1000 and 500 mile Ice Age runners. In order to do that, they would have run this race either 10 or 20 times. Imagine that? Hmm, only 8 more years for me just to reach the 500 mark.

So with the customary Ultra start, "READY, SET, GO", we were off to run around the woods for the next 10 to 12 hours.

The race consisted of three separate out-and-back loops. The first one being the easiest. Me and Caroline tried to keep an even pace, but you know, when you are with people racing we tended to go a little faster than we wanted to.

The first loop went pretty well, there was some single track running, but nothing to technical. Lots of pine needles on the ground and some open spaces in between to make it interesting. So we finished the 1st 10 miles and loop 1 in about 2 hours.

So with the 1st loop ending at the starting area, I decided to get rid of some clothing I was wearing, including my running vest. Then we went off again.. "

"Wholly crap", I just had my cell phone on me.

"Caroline, I think I just lost it on the trail".

So I back tracked to the start, not once, but twice looking for my phone. So after finally conceding I had lost it, I remembered where I put it, in the back of my hydration pack after taking it out of my running vest. So I felt like a total "ASS" for not remembering where it was.

So the next 10 miles on the second loop went pretty good as well. We were hitting more of the rocky and tree root single track sections at this point. But we both felt pretty good and was on pace to finish a little over 10 hours.

So at the 20+ mile mark we hit an aid station. We saw some of the race leaders cranking out some 3:30 trail marathon times. Wholly crap!!! How can I get that fast and still have energy to run another 25+ miles at that pace?

After a brief stop at the aid station we headed out again. So right after this Caroline was hitting the "WALL" a little bit. I just told her it was the marathon "wall" and it will pass.

So I think this was a sign of some bad things to come, but we kept on moving.

More and more, Caroline was starting to hit the "wall" every couple of miles, we were slowing down a bit and I was a little bit concerned about not making the 33 mile cutoff time.

But with a little prodding by me? Okay, threatening to "KICK her in the ASS" if she didn't start moving faster seemed to help a little bit. Even though a slap in the face might have been coming as well.

So with about 40 minutes to spare we were happy to get pass the 33 mile cut-off aid station with time to spare. But I knew we still had 17 miles to go, I told her, "it ain't over yet".

So from this point on, Caroline was having serious trouble eating anything and getting the much needed calories. Her hands were swelling up and she mentioned she felt like passing out, but I told her to keep moving and things will hopefully pass.

"It's all about getting through the WALL's in Ultra Running," I said to her..

So with things still not getting better by trying different nutritional things, I thought it was best to have her set her own pace and run in front of me. With miles and time ticking away we kept on moving somehow.

So with a little less than 4 miles to go we were only about 16 minutes ahead of the cutoff. I was trying to think of all kinds of things to say to her. Sometimes nice and sometimes direct to the point.

Words of encouragement like "suffer later", "no regrets", "I know you want this", we were able to get some more running moments in there to get closer to the finish line. It was just about putting one foot in front of the other. Either way, I was determined to see this through with her to the end.

Now less than 2 mile away, we pushed on, and I pushed her, to some painful times these last miles. It was a little bit painful to know she was suffering, but I knew it would have been more painful for us the next day to know we did not finish.

"C'mon over this hill, we are close"

"Ooops, one more hill, we are really close"

"We have to run, we will not make it if we walk"

"C'mon, they will not feed us if we don't finish on time"

"I smell some barbecue, we are really close"

Even one or two spectators thought I was being a little mean to her :0..

Then between the trees we finally saw the big tent that was setup close to the finish line.

At this point tears came down Caroline's face, and put a tear in my eye as well.

I knew we could do it and we did it with 11 minutes to spare in the 12 hour cutoff.

Finishing time of 11:49, and yes, Dead Frickin Last (D.F.L).

Hooray for that, because it really didn't matter. The people who were really last were the ones who weren't able to finish, I told her. So a D.F.L. is so much better than a D.N.F. (Did not Finish) any day.

As I sat her down after the finishline making sure she was okay, also looking over to see where the medical tent was just in case. Tears were still in both of our eyes.

I was so proud of her this day. A race I will surely remember. The struggles endured and the battles fought this day will live with us both for many years to come.

As for me, I did have some bad spots as well, a little loopy feeling once or twice out there, but I didn't fall once, and that was an improvement. Because landing on those rocks would have some major physical pain. Caroline was able to eat something after the race and felt 100% better after that.

So what is next for me, only time will tell, a triathlon perhaps, but for now enjoy the rest of the week.

Hope you all have a great week as well.

2008-05-07T03:30:00.000-07:00

Goals?

I think like most people I need goals to get me out of bed to keep moving and workout. I have found some renewed energy in my workouts, taking those two weeks renewed my endurance spirit and my tired running legs.

After some miles on the trails over the weekend. I happen to spectate at the Palos half marathon that ran along the trails at the same time I was out there.

Watching 1500+ people and many of my TRi club members churning away at the miles made me yearn for the road again. Not just running the roads again, but to be faster on those same roads, because quite honestly as of late thought was not to fun at all.

So the goal has been set, to get down to a BQ (Boston Marathon Qualifying) time. But how do I really get faster and able to run a 3:20 marathon? Anybody have any ideas?

Yes I understand, the basics; intervals, tempo runs, and long runs.

But my questions is this? Do I do 800 meter or 1 mile interval workouts. 3 mile tempo or should they be longer tempo runs? What has worked for you to get faster?

So while I figure this all out, I do have a 50 mile ultra on Saturday. I got to at least have some fun before I try to work my ASS off to get faster. That will be the plan, run with my training partner the whole way and have fun at the post race barbecue and hopefully add a little more "bling" to the ULtra drawer.

Okay one more thing, If you tell me I also have to watch my diet while trying to get faster as well, I might have to rethink this whole BQ thing. Because I'm currently on my cheese danish eating "binge" once again.

2008-04-27T18:17:00.000-07:00

"Back in the Saddle"

So after taking a two week hiatus from running and training after my 100 miler. I actually hit the trail and roads once again for a little running. Always a strange feeling after not doing something for a longtime. Two weeks is not a long time for most people, but for me can feel like an eternity.

Hit my usual trail route with one of my running partners for a 12 mile run. It was actually kinda of odd, because I was the one trying to keep dry from the mud and water on the trails. I guess after 100 miles of it two weeks ago, I needed a much needed break from that to.

Then another 12 miles on Sunday on the roads. I was reminded why I like the comfort of a softer surface to run on. "Me NO likey" pavement running to much anymore.

I also finally got the result of my MRI on my ankle. I actually scheduled all the testing and ortho doc appointment after my race. I figured if I was not messed up before, I sure would be afterwards. But guess what??

NO STRESS FRACTURE, that is what the doc intitally suspected. Post-Tib Tendinitis , definitely sounds better than a STRESS FRACTURE. So treatment is better pain meds, ankle physical therapy, Custom orthotics , and I have been cleared to run.. OOOPS, I think I have been doing that already. No, I did not mention the 100 miler or 50k I completed since my initial consultation. Guess I went with my "GUT" instinct and lucked out. Sometimes it's good to be lucky??

So with my next race on the horizon, ICE AGE 50 miler in two weeks, I need to get some running in before then. But my "A" race is behind me now, so time to have some fun out there. Run with my one of running friends during the race, and just make the 12 hour cutoff. That's the plan and I'm good with that.

Then after that, I'm going to try to morph into more of a triathlete and give my feet a rest, but I might have one or two "LONG" ultras left in me yet. Because honestly I'm just having way to much fun out there running around in the woods.

2008-04-18T03:27:00.000-07:00

"The 100 miles"

How do you try to put into words what 30+ hours of endurance felt like?

It all started the Friday before the race, I picked up my packet and watched some of the 150 milers doing their loop. I timed it right and saw the top 3 people finishing 30 miles.

On race day, Saturday morning I was up at 3:00am, to get my stuff finally organized and headed to the race to drop of my gear at that drop zone (A place to have your own personal aid station). I was taking my time to get settled and get ready, then I went to go get a closer parking to the start of the race. Since it had been raining during the night, my wheels spun trying to get out of the parking spot. Crap, my car is stuck in the mud. After several people helping me and several moments of shear panic, I was able to get towed out and find more level ground. Now that would have sucked coming to this after completing the race.

So the start was a 6:00am, it was still dark and I used a headlamp for good measure. My plan was just to take one loop at a time. It was pretty surreal starting out, I didn't want to think how long or how many miles ahead of me, just run the first 10 miles and feel the course out.

Loop/Lap 1 ~ 2:08:50.68 12:53/M 10.000

At the beginning the 10 mile loop was actually still in great shape, there was muddy spots but most of it was pretty runnable. I planned to just stay in zone 2 heart rate and not care about how many people passed me along the way. After the first hill we headed out to a open area before the single track. There was a bagpiper belting out a tune, ahhh the sounds of nature.. So after a couple more miles the 1st water crossing was upon me. The race director said to go right if you wanted to go to the more shallow end (knee deep), if you went straight across it was close to 5 feet deep. There was another water crossing further along, ankle deep. So 2 water crossings per loop, yup 20 times of water fun. So the rest of the loop was easy going, felt great and I had the fastest split time ever for me at McNaughton:

Loop/Lap 2 ~ 2:18:51.57 13:53/M 20.000

The plan after each loop was to consume one ENSURE drink and try to eat as much of my PB&J crustables I could stomach. So after that I was off again. I just tried to keep an even pace. Run the flats, walk up the hills, and be cautious on the descents. So a couple of miles into loop 2 Travis caught up to me. He did his first 50 miler at McNaughton last year as well and was also attempting his 1st 100 miler today. We proceeded to run together talking about life, the trails, and people we have run into so far. It was great running with him because we both had the same positive attitude. Time and the miles just flew by, so loop two was in the books.

Loop/Lap 3 ~ 2:26:22.98 14:38/M 30.000

So another quick stop, more liquid nutritional calories and Me and Travis were off again on our third loop. So around the end of the 1st mud climb we ran into fellow ChiA runner Brian (he was doing the 50 miler). We chatted a little bit and headed on ahead. Things were going smoothly, run strategy was going great, and I was way ahead of my time goal splits. Then on one of the hills my left leg started to cramp, I told Travis to go ahead. So with the cramping I had to do a different strategy, let me try walking up sideways up the hill. That seemed to do the trick and elevate the pressure on my cramping muscle. So 30 miles done and another 70 to go, woohoo, actually tried to not think about how much I had left to do.

Loop/Lap 4 2:35:10.86 15:31/M 40.000

I usually don't race with any music, even my 50 milers, but 100 milers, Yeah I think I needed to. So I put them on, fueled up, and was off again. I was off running on my own again, still feeling pretty good, heart rate was still in my correct zone, and I did not feel tired at all. The trail was still in good shape and I even might beat my 50 mile mark set from last year race at McNaughton.

Loop/Lap 5 2:55:39.93 17:34/M 50.000

Woohoo, I'm pretty sure I PR'ed at the 50 miler, even just by a couple of minutes. So I'll take it for now, I thought for myself. Now the hard part was coming. NIGHT RUNNING!!! So I got ready for the night, changing my shoes, socks, warmer clothing, and lighting gear to see my way through the darkness. I was off again to do the longest running miles ever in my life. I was still running well, then near the 1st water crossing, I came across a set of eyes, one high, and one low. Could not figure what it was. It was a lady walking her dog. It was BIG DOG, German Shepard. I asked which way you want me to pass, left or right. So I went left, then the dog growled, barked, and totally wanted to rip me another ASSHOLE. Dang lady, no leash, she was barely holding on to him with his collar. So I tried to put as much space I could between me and that angry dog. I just hoped she did not cross path with any other runner. Imagine that, being taken out of race because of dog attack, not by the race itself.

Loop/Lap 6 3:48:19.15 22:50/M 60.000

Darkness, that is all I could say, not sure if it was raining, snowing, or what, but it was getting a tad bit colder running around. I was starting to get a little tired at this point, I even drank my double espresso Starbucks can drink before I left for my loop. That did not deter me from yawning and thoughts of a warm bed right now would be just sooo wonderful. The trail was starting to get more slippery and the thought of falling off the single track into a big ditch was not to appealing, but possible. So I tried to stay alert and be more cautious on the dangerous sections of the course. At this point I screamed, talked, and played mind games to stay focused and stay awake. I actually started to see things, tree logs started to look like creatures of the night. Also for the 1st time I had doubts and questioned what I was doing. It was a slow loop but with a cup of warm noodle soup I got through it nonetheless.

Loop/Lap 7 4:12:44.91 25:16/M 70.000

By far this was the most challenging loop, after falling allot during my last loop, I decided to regroup and try to "power" walk this loop and see how much time it would take me. I was starting to get even more tired. I stopped once or twice and just stood there and closed my eyes for about 20 seconds to get a little rest. It was pretty quite out there, I hardly saw any runners and one time heard male voices, but nobody seemed to be there. That put the heebeejeeves in me, so I quickened my pace and kept looking back every couple of seconds. More cups of noodle soup, pieces of Pb&J, and soft sounds from my Ipod were the only thing that kept me going and finally finishing the 7 Th loop.

Loop /Lap 8 3:54:11.22 23:25/M 80.000

In the beginning of this lap I realized I had lost alot of the buffer of time I had during the day to reach my time goal. So after more Ensure, hot coffee, and my last can of canned Starbucks double espresso I headed off into the night again. I know I needed to go faster in order to reach 80 miles by the time sunrise came about. I was still pretty tired and getting more cold. So I decided to try to use my run strategy I had during the start of this crazy event. So I started to run, run in the darkness like a zombie. It actually was a great thing, it gave me my second wind and woke me up, warmed my chilled bones, as I waited for my defining moment. "SUNRISE," I knew if I can see Sunday's sunrise I would finish this event. The sunrise came slowly but I was still going and that was the most important part. Eventhough I was still about 30 minutes behind my schedule, I only had 20 miles to go. THANK GOD...

Loop/Lap 9 3:20:56.06 20:06/M 90.000

So while getting more nutrition and getting ready on my next lap, the Race Director comes over and tells me I was in 10th and now jumped to 6th place during my previous loop. I was pretty much in shock and just told him I was just trying to survive out there. So after dumping my lighting gear, I changed my hat and wore my Iron Man hat for the last 20 miles for luck. "It was time to earn your keep", I said to myself. It was great again to see where I was going, it was still pretty much shoe sucking mud at certain points but like being a zombie runner most of the night I felt like a trail runner once again. As the miles clicked off I tried to keep focused and just live in the moment, but my legs were starting to getting tired. But I finished and WOW, one more lap to go.

The FINAL LAP!! Lap 10 3:07:47.89 18:47/M 100.000

As soon as I finished mile 90, the Race director screams out at me, your in 4th place now, and there is the guy in 5th right behind you. All the volunteers were prodding me to run like the wind. "NO TIES OUT HERE", "RUN 7 MINUTES MILES, YOU CAN DO IT". Crap, something a person wants to hear after going 90 miles already. So I said what the hell, I hastened my aid station stop and took off as best I could. What was the difference between 4th and 5th place, nothing really just a number. But I wanted to leave everything out there when I was done. So my strategy was me to get as much distance I could get so I could deter his will to even try to catch up to me. I starting running, my breathing became harder, my legs were getting really fatigued, "C'mon give everything you got, these last 10 miles". I was actually doing pretty good putting distance between me and the 5th place person. I did not want him to see me and my plan was working. Two miles left I heard voices, crap, wasn't even sure if it was the 5th place person, but I kept running even when my body was telling me to stop. So with the last foot bridge, the finish line was in site, so guess what, I started sprinting best I could, waving my arms so they could see me approach.

I WAS DONE, 30 hours and 48 minutes later, I WAS A 100 MILE FINISHER, 4th Place Overall, 3rd place overall among the men.

I shook peoples hands and saw my training friends screaming from their car to congratulate me for finishing.

It was a great crazy two days, I experienced alot of things during this time. To many to even write in this long post.

I was happy to finish, to set up the "goal post" where some people thought was to far for me to reach. But I believed in myself and my training friends believed in me. That is what so special of that moment. To spend that moment with them as well.

So what's next, besides alot of rest for my still tired feet. It is the McNaughton 50/100/150 mile races. Hmm, the McNaughton 150 miler, maybe one day, for now 100 miles is far plenty for me.

Thanks for everybody for reading and sharing this with me. It was a journey, a journey of 100 miles and then some I will always remember.

2008-04-14T08:18:00.001-07:00

"Relentless Forward Motion"

That was the motto for the 100 miler, you know what?

It worked more than I ever could imagined.

Yes, I finished. I'm an 100 MILER ULTRA FINISHER!!!!

Total time, around 30 hours and 48 minutes. I think I closed my eyes for about 20 seconds a couple of times to rest the entire time. Had a couple of delusional episodes while running at night, but somehow I made it through to the Sunday sunrise. I knew if I could do that, I would make it to the end.

It was a crazy race, it rained, snowed, probably had sleet too, and knee high water crossings at the shallow end. I'm sure it was mid 40's during the day and colder at night.

Muddy conditions and a very high D.N.F rate at the 100 mile event, I think only 22 out of 60 registered finished the whole 100 miles.

Congratulations to Brian from my Chia running group for finishing his 50 miler at McNaughton as well.

I'm also pretty dang proud to have my running buddies, KickstandPam and Caroline finish their 1st 50 miler at McNaughton as well. Now my UltraRunning buddies.

So for the most amazing thing, finishing with a 30+ hour time, I placed 3rd among the men and 4Th overall. I can't fricken belief it, I'm still in shock.

So today, I'm going to rest up (off from work) and eat tons of junk food, the lack of sleep has not totally caught up to me, but I'm sure it is coming. Legs are feeling okay, feet feel swollen but it will pass. But feeling pretty good considering.

Thanks for everybody who was thinking about me during my race. You thought I was probably insane for doing a 100 miler, and after finishing this, I might have to agree with you.

But the belief I could do this crazy thing got me the finish line and alot of Relentless Forward Motion helped me finish remarkably well.

(my 100 mile finisher buckle and muddy flashlight, after falling several times during the night)

I will write a longer Race report soon, but for now I'm just going to relax and wear my Ultra jacket I got from the race with great pride.

2008-04-07T04:44:00.001-07:00

"Six words are not enough"

I was tagged by "Travis," to post a "six word memoir".

Here are the rules:
1) Write your own six word memoir
2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
4) Tag at least five more blogs with links
5) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Well I actually have more words than that, so I will cut the words I live by into 6 words,

How about:

"Life is Short, it's LONG enough"

So who ever wants to play, your tagged!

That's me after finishing the McNaughton 50 miler last year.

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered" ~ Nelson Mandela

So I return a year later to attempt the McNaughton 100 miler on Saturday.

Start time is 6:00am. I have until 4:00pm on Sunday to FINISH. 34 hours, I thought about starting with the 150 mile group and having more time to finish. But I will start with the regular group and attempt the hardest race I have ever done. No doubt about that!!!

Race goals, obviously just to FINISH. Just make it to the SUNRISE on Sunday with a certain number of miles. That's the goal, nothing else.

Will I sleep, probably little or none. "Relentless Forward Motion", the more moving I do the closer I can get to the finish line.

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox" ~ Lao Tzu

I'll live off PB&J, Cliff Bloks, Cliff gels, Hammer Perpeteum, and Ensure to get some calories in me. Sound delicious, doesn't it, ooh Yummy..

How will I Pace? Run slow, walk up all the hills, and run the rest of it as much as I can.

"If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, Then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, keep moving." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Two stream crossings and 1600 feet of elevation per 10 mile loop. Just have to run 10 miles, 10 times, sound easy enough right?

So right now the weather is kinds of iffy, maybe rain, which means mud running, which is not really fun at all. But I will take what the course gives me and hopefully will have that 100 mile "buckle" in my hand by the time I leave that race on Sunday.

So come what may, I will do my best, but I will really not be happy unless I finish. With around a 48% finishing rate last year. It will be no easy task.

But here goes, time to get ready and gear up.

"Every morning I wake up saying, I'm still alive; a miracle. And so I keep on pushing" ~ Jacques Cousteau (Captain of Calypso)

And Push I will, until I cross that "FRICKIN" FINISH LINE.

2008-04-01T03:21:00.001-07:00

"Running around a Lake"

So on Saturday, The Clinton Lake 30 miler was the 1st of the 4 races in the IL. Slam Ultra Race Series.

It actually started a little crazy on Friday, I come home from work and told my wife I'm feeling a cold coming on. I was hoping for some sympathy, but since my daughter was also sick, that didn't happen. Boohoo. But I decided not to take any medications so I would not feel to loopy running in the morning.

So at 3:15 am, me, kickstandPam, and Caroline headed off for the race. We must have had strong winds driving there, because we were the 1st racers there and still had two hours before the race start.

So luckily a little shuteye cleared my head a little bit before the race start.

It was an interesting start, the Race director told us that last year he only had less than a 50% finishers rate, because of all the mud. So that was inspiring to hear before we started, but off we went.

Loop 1

Honestly my plan was to just use it as a training run for the 100 miler in two weeks and take it easy, but sometimes you get caught up in the excitement of a race. So I did, my heart rate was around 160 already the 1st mile. I kinda of chalked it up as being sick, but I was trying to stay under 149 (Zone 2) the whole race if I could.

We started running single track immediately, pretty much early on it was follow the leader and tried to find some spots to pass some slower runners. Alot of rolling hills, some big hills, but not as muddy as I thought it would be. So on the 1st loop with still a 160+ heart rate I finished in around 1:48. So I was a little inspired, maybe I can finish under 6 hours this day.

Loop 2

The crowd thinned out a little bit and just tried to run my own race. It did seem a little bit more muddy, because of the 100+ racers who already passed on by. The winds seem to pick up a certain spots as well. At one point a fellow ChiA runner Brian, caught up to me and we started running together for awhile. Then at the end of the loop I felt a sharp pain in the my inner thigh and told Brian to go on without me. It felt like a really bad cramp. All I could think about is, man this could happen in my 100 miler. But I sucked it up and tried to walk it off. Eventually it started to go away and I was running slowly again.

I finished the second loop in around 3:55, so I still had hopes of breaking 6 hours.

Loop 3

I changed my water bottles once again and headed off for the final lap. At this point the cold air was starting to get to my lungs. I was whizzing a little bit and coughing was a little bit of agony in itself, but I needed to finish nonetheless. At one point I was actually able to catch up to Brian and another ChiA runner Kelly who was doing some pacing work in the final 10 miles. We stayed together until the last aid station on the loop. I was starting to cramp again, which was really frustrating because I thought I had my nutrition nailed down at this point.

But I continued on listening to the trees howl and geese flying across the lake. A beautiful thing I must say.

The Finish

So in the final stretch, I was able to get the kinks out of my leg, sprinted to the finish with a time of 6 hours and 17 minutes, 38Th out of 109 starters. Not the under 6 hours I was hoping for, but it was supposed to be a training run I kept telling myself. I had fun and took a well needed rest on the bench next to my fellow finisher Brian. Ahhh, it felt good to sit down..

So after eating some cold sausage pizza, I waited for my running partners to come in. This would be their first ever trail race and longest run to date. They will attempting there 1st 50 miler in two weeks, so I was pretty excited for them. I was wondering if they were cursing my name out on the trail as well.

Then I saw them heading to the finish, all smiles, WooHoo.

So it was a great time out there, a good primer for everybody who will be racing in two weeks at the McNaughton 50/100/150 mile Ultra and also meeting some of the ChiA runners. I need to tweak my nutrition a little more. But by running cautiously out there, my ankle held up and I'm glad about that.

So time to relax a little bit and do a little taper before my 1st 100 miler. How do you taper for a 100 miler anyways??

I still have alot of doubts of how I'm going to do, but try I will. I know it's going to HURT alot, I'm really HURT. But a challenge I set before me that I plan on not backing away from.

So bring it ON and how did I ever get myself signed up for a 100 miler, I wonder sometimes? Even these days I think I might be even a little bit nuts.

2008-03-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

"See No EVIL"

"Hear No EVIL"

"Speak NO EVIL"

That was pretty much like what I felt or did when I went to go finally go see my orthopedic doc the other day. First it took a month just to get an appointment and I knew what was going to be the outcome.

First the "B" team comes in to see me, aka the physical therapist. Stretches and twist me to check out my flexibility. I tell them I'm an Ultra Runner, surprisingly she knows what that is.

Therapist: So you don't do marathons anymore?

Bubba: kinda of tired of them.

Therapist: So you have done Boston?

Bubba: No! I'm one of those slow runners!

Then the orthopedic Doc comes in:

Doc: So you've done IronMan?

Bubba: Yes..

Doc: Kona?

Bubba: No. Just the one in Wisconsin.

Doc: I did a 32 mile trail run and wanted to do Western States before I got injured.

Okay, why do people equate Marathon's with Boston, and IronMan with Kona, and Ultra's with Western States. Do you know how hard it is to get into any of these, let alone just being fast, you need some lottery luck just to get into Western States 100 miler (considered the Boston marathon of Ultra's).

For some reason I was a little irked by the whole dialogue. Maybe it is just me?

I'll spare you the details of what the evil words a doctor can tell a runner. But I'm running and racing anyway. My MRI test are scheduled for my ankle after my attempt of 100 miles at McNaughton. But the doc did spook me a little bit and I know I need to run cautiously until my final prognosis is determined.

So with a 5:15am start time on Saturday, me and two friends set out into the darkness for a little trail running. I did get them a little lost trying to find the single track trails but they seem to have a good time. One person fell while running and I said "you've been baptized" to trail running. "As long as you get up", that is the most important thing, I told her while I helped her up.

It was a good run, the evil words from the doc left from my thoughts and felt free again to live the life I want to lead.

"the most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own record." ~ Amelia Earhart

So with that, 1st race in the "Illinois Ultra Grand Slam" race series is on Saturday, Clinton Lake Trail race. Thirty miles of trails and probably some mud, it will be a training run, cautiously I will run, but run I will.

2008-03-15T21:34:00.000-07:00

7 Things

So to follow up with TriTeacher's tag, here are 7 things about me..

1) I usually mark "pacific islander" when asked what ethnicity I'am. I can't speak to much of my native language "Tagalog", but can understand most of it, but of course I know the basics and most of the curse words.

2) In junior high school, I was in detention every year for fighting, and to this day still kind of think that was "cool". As an adult got into at least 2 bar/club fights hanging around some of my friends.

3) In senior high school, I was in the marching band, played the alto saxophone. Then wanted to become a jazz musician after high school and major in "Studio JAZZ" (it was actually a major in college). But decided to study Finance and wanted to live in New York and work on Wall Street. Now I work as a computer geek, go figure that one out.

4) I've done all kinds of martial arts since I was 25:

Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu, Judo, Brazilian JuJitsu, Thai kickboxing, Japanese shooto, Filipino, Indonesian, and Malaysian martial arts just to name a few. I've been trained how to use a knife and could also show you how to choke somebody out with a regular bandanna. I've been an instructor in some of them for about 10 of those years. People ask me what belt I have. I always liked Mr. Miyage's answer from the Karate Kid ~ "JcPenny, $3.99".

I have been really inactive since I've been more involved in triathlons and UltraRunning. I might still be kind of rusty but pretty sure I still know a move or too..

5) I used to collect alot of Asian antique weapons and armor, thanks to eBay and other collectors. I had a room in my house full of these weapons displayed, but I did take it down to make a playroom for my daughter. Some pieces actually belong in a museum, but I think when I pass on, people in charge of my belongings will just sell it on eBay for just a $1. CRAP! (this pic just shows part of my collection)

But I do plan to show it to any prospective dates when my daughter gets older.

6) As some of my friends know and my wife reminds me at times, I do buy alot of crap. Love to bargain shop, so I have multiples of everything in the house. What would my world be without EBAY, scary to think it.

7) I actually grew up in Florida, one day read this book by Anthony Robbins about taking control of your life. Decided to move to Chicago on my own 15 years ago, no job, no friends, stayed with a crazy aunt. Hardest thing I have ever done, but sometimes you have to look at your life and take a chance on CHANGE. So I did.

So that's 7 things, so let the chain tagging continue on:

KickstandPam
Nettie
Studies in Clydeology
Pharmie

There is alot of tagging going around, so not sure who has been tagged or not..

I hope everybody had a great weekend. I was able to do a little bit of night trail running along with 30 miles on Saturday, Woohoo. Hopefully a little more miles on Sunday, then I get a running rest day, So WooHoo to that to.

2008-03-09T21:58:00.000-07:00

D.N.S. alternative?

I was TAGGED by TRITEACHER, but first I wanted to tell you about my long weekend.

So what to do abut my D.N.S (Did not show) this weekend. I actually had a 50 mile UltraMarathon scheduled for Saturday in downstate Kentucky. I registered in the beginning of the year and was looking forward to a trail race in a new state.

It would have been a 6 hour drive each way. A long drive by myself, but manageable. Then the weather turns at the last minute, so I would have to drive through a winter storm to get there. Then had to work late, and extra things like "LIFE" made the trip a "NO GO" for the weekend. Boohoo..

So what to do, maybe I'll just try to run 50 miles over the weekend?

It was around 18 degrees when I started out Saturday morning. I hoped to get in some trail running so I headed out on the trail. But when I ran about 100 yards, sheets of ice were covered by a thin layer of snow on the trail. Hmm, let me go the other way.. Okay more ice, CRAP, BUBBA MAN DOWN, okay this will not be runnable.. So the roads had to do. So for 5 1/2 hours I ran around this 4 mile rolling hill loop. I think I saw the same man walking his dog about 5 times and dang it was cold, but I finished what I set out to do this day, 30 miles, now that was grueling on my feet.

Then on Sunday I met some of my running buds and cranked out another 20 miles, 3.5 hours of running.

Not alot of fast running during this 50 mile challenge, but a 50 mile weekend nonetheless, I guess this will do. I wish I could have done 50 miles of trail running, but old man winter is really overstaying its welcome right now.

So overall a descent week on running, my ankle held up but still not sure how it will stand up against a long technical single track trail run. But I will push hard in my training the next couple of weeks. Because the momentum right now is to give the 100 miler a shot in 5 weeks. I know I will not be ready the way I wanted to because of my chronic injuries.

But reading my current issue of UltraRunning magazine, I read this from Scott Jurek, "UltraRunning's 2007 Male Runner of the year". Now who could argue with him.

"We often take on new challenges in order to find this opportunity for growth. Many of us are looking at our upcoming 2008 running seasons, wondering which explorations to take on. I challenge you to take on something you haven't dared in past years. A longer run, a faster time, a new trail, a new culture, or even a lifestyle change. Get out there, take it on, persevere!" ~ Scott Jurek

So Scott Jurek, as long as I stay healthy until then, I take up your challenge and let the 100 mile race be what it is, a test of perseverance.

2008-03-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

"6"

6 weeks actually, that is what is left until the McNaughton trail Ultra race.

For awhile there it was just a date on my little trusty organizer. Stopped counting how much I had left to train for the race because I was getting injured so much.

But the count down is back on!!

There is still a couple of things to align right if I'm going to still try to attempt the 100 miler at McNaughton, the most crucial is staying healthy. So far that is happening. I'm not a 100% concerning my left ankle but my arch pain on my other foot is being a non-issue these days.

So what to do to mark the occasion? In my typical style go get some more danishes at Costco. Okay they didn't have a six pack but a 9 pack will do as well.

Also ran an extra 6+ miles in the treadmill on Sunday to finish up a 5 hour run planned for the day. Actually felt not to bad considering I ran for 3.5 hours on Saturday.

Hmm, 6+ more miles scheduled for today.

So along with my longest running weekend of the year. I'm going to prepare, prepare to race the 50 or survive the 100. But prepare I will and hope for some warmer temperature in the Midwest in the next 6 days.

So guess I'm liking the number 6 these days.

It is good to be running consistently once again, the cold, the coyotes, and stuffing a plastic bag to keep my manhood from freezing while I run.

It's all GOOD.

2008-02-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

Afraid of the Dark!

Oooh weee, I ran today, actually 5 miles on the treadmill!!

So what is great about that?

Well my run training has been going like this, run one week, then the next week, hobbling around the household watching reruns and eating ICE cream, and not able to run. Okay not really so bad, the junk food eating part that is.

So last week I tried taking it slow and do some easy runs on the treadmill. One hour runs at a very easy pace. Okay not to bad!

Then the weekend. I was pretty nervous trying to actually run outside. I know the run would be okay but more worried about the aftermath. All that impact, my feet was not liking that lately. But lace up my shoes I did, finishing 10 miles of actual road running at an easy pace.

Then I met up with two of my soon to be Ultra Runners, kickstand Pam and Caroline for Sunday's trail run. They had a 3.5 hour run planned, but I was hoping to try to do more, give it a shot at least. So I headed to the trail around 5:30am just to try a little bit of night trail running on my own.

Yes, it was spooky being out there, I had a headlamp, a flashlight on one hand, and something to protect myself on the other. I know we don't have super dangerous wildlife out there roaming around, but all I could think of was flashbacks from the movie "The Blair Witch Project".

So I need to work on getting over my fear of running the trails at night, especially if I ever want to finish a 100 mile Ultra race.

Maybe I should carry my teddy bear when I was a kid? Maybe that would help? you think so?

But after running for a few minutes, then walk and look behind me in the dark, I met up with my running buddies. The sun was starting to finally rise on the ice packed snowy trails. The trails was really not to bad, allot of icy spots covered by snow which was bearable, but the ice did make it feel like we were running on the roads most of the time.

But even though the last hour was a little bit of a struggle for me, I was able to complete a 4 hour trail run with the help of my running buddies.

So a 30+ mile weekend and almost 50 miles for the week consisting of running, aqua~jogging, and some miles on the elliptical trainer.

From zero to almost 50, YEAH, but better yet, I think going from running miles to zero miles will not happen this time around, so far anyway.

I actually did make a appointment to go see an orthopedics doctor, but good old HMO, the only appointment available is 4 weeks away. So for now, I'm going to continue to self treat myself.

So what do I do now?

Hmmm, I'm honestly still undecided if I should still attempt the 100 miler in less than 7 weeks. I can actually drop down to the 50 miler 30 minutes before race start, so I'm not going to loose sleep over how many weeks I have left or if I should do the 100 miler or not. Because I still have plan B approved by the my "agent," yes the wife, as my alternative for my quest for craziness.

So hopefully another descent week of running along with some recovery things to hopefully keep me healthy for this week. So whatever happens I'm fine with it, because I'm back to some running again and training with some of my TRI club teammates.

I just wish it would at least stay above 40 degrees now and then, because it does get a little cold out there under the moonlight sky.

2008-02-18T08:07:00.000-08:00

Progress!

I think my trail shoes are getting really lonely these days. Missing a 50k trail race over the weekend stings a little bit. But I know it was the right decision to not go.. I would have finished the race but would have paid a heavy price afterwards.

So I headed to the gym instead, because things are getting better on the injury front. Feel more optimistic, but it has been up and down the past month, so I'll take any kind progress as it occurs at this point.

I've been sleeping with one foot in a night splint and the other one bandaged up providing compression. Surprisingly it has helped.

Good enough to get a couple of running miles on the treadmill. Along with more pool running, some strength training, and going to my masters swim class. Activity does make the body and soul feel so much better.

Then the latest addition of Triathlete magazine comes in the mail. I sometimes forget I'm a triathlete as well and not just a trail runner. So with more active recovery comes more time surfing the Internet for races to possibly enter.

So I'm adding this one on my 2008 tentative race list. The Great Illini , and since I will be there, might as well do the FULL distance (2.4 swim, 112 bike, 26.2 run), RIGHT!!

More things to get excited about!

2008-02-11T18:52:00.000-08:00

"60 to Zero"

Hmm, Zero to 60, that was my last post.

Now this week became 60 to zero, okay 60 to at least a couple of running miles.

I think it finally sunk in that I need to back off on my 100 mile training.

I have really tried taking it one week at a time. But being able to run one week, then the next week I struggle with my injuries is not really fun at all. I need to restart and put the caution flag out.

I do sometimes forget it is only February and have a lot more months of racing ahead of me. My ankle is still bothering me a little bit, but it is starting to cause other problems because I'm trying to adjust my running motion and overcompensate.

I also have some arch pain to add to my feet woes.

I was planning to do a 50k trail race this weekend. So instead of a D.N.S (Did not Show) it will be just a "D.N.R" (did not register) on the race list, a little disappointed, but at least I'm not out of the registration fee.

I'm also leaning towards my 100 miler plan B option. Drop down from 100 to 50 miles at the McNaughton Trail race in April.

So the next candidate might be the Mohican 100 in June, just because it seems to be harder than the Kettle(KM) 100 that also is in June.

So time to suck it up and do some non-impact running again. I've somewhat got over the boredom factor of the elliptical trainer, but going to try something equally as boring. AQUA-JOGGING, thanks to eBay I got some aqua-shoes to provide a little resistance in the water. But since I don't have access to a deep water pool, I'm going to be running back and forth in a shallow pool. Ohhh the mind-numbing boredom.

If anybody has any more ideas of anymore mind-numbing non-impact cardio to get me through this time? I'm open to any suggestions, while I wait to see my foot doctor to tell me I need to rest more.

2008-02-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

Zero to 60

Before I get to that, let me tell you, I was able to get tickets for the kiddo and watch the Hannah Montana Concert movie in 3D. Boy, was that interesting. It was actually pretty good. I think all movies should made that way.

Then we went to go see High School Musical 1 and 2 on ICE. Okay not so interesting, my kid punched me in the arm because she caught me napping at one point.

So I needed to do some running after all that. My ankle x-rays came back negative for a stress fracture, which really means not to much, you can't see it until it heals anyway. But a bone spur showed up also. Now that hurts like a bi-ya-tch if it gets irritated.

But my soon to be "UltraRunner" running training partner, KickstandPam threw down the challenge. She is doing her 1st 50 mile race in April.

So Saturday, we met at 5:30 am near the trails. We've had a significant amount of snowfall. So 12+ inches of snow and my ankle not being 100% was not going to like the trails, so we hit the road for a long run. My ankle was all taped up and tried out some of my night running lights for the first time. I felt good out there, ankle not a great problem but tentative running for sure. We met some other people from our club and at the end ran for over 3 hours and almost 18 miles.

Then yup, repeat the next day on Sunday.

Me and KickStandPam met up again and started at 6:00am. This was going to be the test. To run back to back long runs and see if my body and ankle will hold up. So more road running in 30 degree weather. The last hour was a struggle but almost a 4 hour and 22 mile run. 40 miles in one weekend. I have not done that in awhile.

I must say, if I ran it alone I would have not had the motivation to run that far this weekend. I'm really grateful to have somebody I can Ultra train with these day. Eventhough she got us loss running around in her own neighborhood, she did excuse herself before she let one rip.

Ahhh, it is good to be running outside and with my friends again. Definitely needed a nap after Sundays run but overall my body held up.

Yeah, Zero to 60!

Running miles that is, in one week. Hopefully on the road back. Still taking one week at a time thou, but more optimistic to at least attempt my upcoming 100 mile event. For now that is all I need.

2008-01-29T20:13:00.001-08:00

"Smelling the Roses"

So after 2 weeks of NO running because of my ankle injury, I was getting a little stir crazy doing everything thing else in the gym besides running.

So with some snow on the ground over the weekend. I strapped on a pair, my snowshoes that is, a headed out to the trail.

I resisted the urge to run and waved at the people who ran by me. I guess it was time to smell the flowers for a change, or this case watch the snow covered trees. Spotted some deer running around and a clan of them just sitting around. Then one runner passed by and warned me to watch out for a Hawk, OKAY, that is something a guy who really can't move quickly right now wants to hear. But 2 hours, 6 miles, and NO hawk sighting, I was out there doing something.

Then Sunday, my ankle was feeling better so I decided to try a jog/walk routine in my snowshoes. Not to bad, I think with all the snow on the ground, it gave me a level surface I could at least mimic some sort of running form out there on the trail.

Another 9.5 miles later, it felt good to at least jog a little bit with not to much discomfort, in snowshoes nonetheless.

No results from my ankle X-ray yet. Just thinking or mostly hoping it is just a sprained ankle. It does not hurt that much right now, so I'm just taking some slow miles on the treadmill wearing an ankle brace.

So I'm going to keep my race schedule for now and take it week by week.

First up a 50k in two weeks. HooRahh.

2008-01-23T20:22:00.001-08:00

"Tell me something I don't know"

I finally went to go see the doctor today to take a look at my ankle today. Tell the doc it hurts here and get inflammation here.

Doc ~ It's probably Achilles Tendinitis, that is my diagnosis.

Bubba ~ but Doc it hurts more here.

Doc ~ Okay change my diagnosis to a "Ankle Sprain".

Bubba ~ worried about a stress fracture.

Doc ~ Okay, you can get an X-ray, if it still hurts in two weeks, get a follow up X-ray to see if there really is a stress fracture. For now "R.I.C.E. ~ rest, ice, compression, and elevation." Start running slowly when it does not hurt anymore.

Okay, I knew all of this before I saw her. Now, Please tell me something I don't know. OHH, BROTHER!!

So that is my current running status. But not depressed about it. Really what can I do about it. What's done is done!

I'm determined not to just sit on the coach and eat all of my favorite cheese danishes. Not a bad idea though. So more bike sessions, stair master, and the dreaded elliptical trainer. It actually does not hurt when I do that stuff. But after one week into it, it is starting to drive me a little crazy.

I'm still hopeful to show up at the starting line on April 12Th for my 1st 100 miler. At least give it a shot anyway.

"But Whatever Happens, I Will RUN." ~ 2 Samuel 18:23

If not, plan B will take into effect, and just do the 50 mile option, tackle some other 100 miler in the area in June.. The Kettle Moraine 100 or Mohican 100 might be the plan B option for now.

But at least I found this killer treadmill at my health club. The Nordic Track incline trainer, this gadget provides an 0% to 50% incline range. I actually got up to walking 45% before I had to hold on the something. Dang cool machine.

2008-01-15T20:15:00.000-08:00

"13"

13 weeks until my 100 miler and counting..

Not sure my countdown has been particular lucky so far.

It's been up and down training for the past 3weeks. I have been only to squeak out 52, 40, and 49 miles the past weeks. Not close where I want to be right now.This Chronic ankle'itis is starting to really put a downer in my training and interfering with my so called "happy ultra place."

Since I'm self diagnosing myself I probably sprained my ankle previously and has trudged through it by taking days off and running again. I think leading to"Chronic Ankle Instability."

Am I worried? Hard to say, more pissed than anything else that my body is not giving me a healthy week so far. But trying to keep a "can do" attitude.

"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow; it only robs today of its strength." ~ A.J. Cronin

They saw it is 90% mental right?

But YES I know, R.I.C.E. and listen to you body. So I will in my own way this week and cross train for the rest of the week by doing some non-impact activities like cycling and swimming. Then hopefully off to the trails once again this weekend.

It's going to be cold one thou this weekend:

Saturday ~Windy. Partly sunny. Very cold. Highs 6 to 10 above.

Sunday ~ Partly cloudy. Highs 15 to 19.

Ohh weee, actually a warm up on Sunday. But at least I will have have one or two Triathlon club homies to keep me company in the frozen tundra.

2008-01-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

"Dang, I'm getting Old"

I was actually in Florida over the weekend attending my nieces debutant/18 yr birthday party.

Felt like an old man watching these teenagers doing crazy things on the dance floor to hip-hop music.

I know If I would take them out on the trails for a long run, I think most of them would pass out.

But me trying to do this dance step called a "SUPERMAN" I really thought I would hurt myself trying to dance like that, so I just sat in my seat feeling like an old man.

At least I could dance with my daughter and keep up with her moves. It was the 1st time I got to dance with her at a party. Made me think about alot of things and how she is growing up so fast, but I think I still have a few more years left until she totally ditches me during a party to hangout with her cooler teenage friends. So these moments I will cherish.

On the running end, time is flying by, 14 weeks left until the 100 mile big show. Hopefully get some long trail runs in this weekend. No Ultra races around the area until February, Boohoo ~ it does make running for a long time so much easier.

Then finally the x-mas lights and x-mas tree have been put away and the holiday distractions are behind me now. But the holiday eating is a hard habit to break, to many leftover cookies and deserts lying around the house these days to pile up the calories.

I also do wonder of late, what was I thinking, trying to get ready within 16 weeks for this 24+ hour race? But what the hell, I'm entered so I plan to be at the starting line that day.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~ Lao-tzu

Let the "stepping" begin, then again I think that is a dance move as well?

2008-01-03T20:44:00.000-08:00

"2007 Stats"

I'm a little late with my 2007 wrap up, but here it goes anyway.

Training:

Running ~ which includes road, trail, treadmill, and racing miles some how totaled to 1,765.80 miles.

Cycling ~ which included road, races, computrainer, stationary bike, and little bit of Mountain biking miles some how ended up totaling 3,093.17 miles.

Swimming ~ 105.96 miles.

Major Races:

3 ~ 50K's (UltraMarathons)
3 ~ 50 milers (UltraMarathons)
1 IronMan Triathlon
1 Chicago Marathon Race Meltdown

A little over 623 hours of racing and training (how my wife put up with all of this, I will never know)

Not sure how it compares to 2006, since each year is a new year for me, as these 2007 figures will be soon be forgotten as well.

But some of 2007 will not be forgotten.

Doing my 1st 50k trail race, my 1st 50 mile trail race, and ending up with a huge PR at IronMan Wisconsin this year.

Also the memories of training with my teammates and the bloggers I've met this year will never be forgotten as well.

So for 2008, I love doing things different every year to test myself and test my limits. But my family needs more of my time as well. So besides from my planned 100 mile jaunt through the woods in 15 weeks, the rest of the race year will be what it will be. I just plan to have fun doing it and hopefully be a little faster at whatever race I enter.

Here's to new adventures in 2008!!
1st ever snowshoe run, dang it was cold, but fun!

2007-12-30T04:44:00.000-08:00

"Some Mud Slinging and Indiana Time"

Saturday was my last race of the year, the HUFF 50k in Indiana. I started kinda of late heading out to the race. So when I arrived at the gate to pay my DNR park pass I figured I had at least 15 minutes to spare.

Hmm, kinda of quite driving up to the race site. I think I have had this same strange feeling once before at one of my triathlons. OHH crap, I park my car and see no racers around. The race clock has already started. Instead of having 15 minutes to spare, I was actually 45 minutes late for the race. "ROYAL CRAP," what's up with the daylight saving time theory again.

So I was able to pick up my timing chip and was on my way starting the race 50 minutes behind everybody else.

It had rained and sleeted in the area the night before, so I knew the trail would be pretty icy and muddy. Okay, maybe it was not so bad running by myself through the mud right now, at least I can try to find the best path through this stuff.

But all I could think about was I really did not want to be last in the race and try to at least catch up to a couple of people.

It was a three loop race, so the first loop I was feeling pretty good and doing a descent pace, for me anyways.

So around mile 6, I spotted some back of packers moseying along. Okay, I was feeling a little better, than I get a tap on the back of me saying "good job". Crap, I just got lapped by the leader. Then around two more lapped me before finishing my 1st lap. Dang I hope get fast out here one day?

1 st loop ~ 1:50:48

So on the second loop I tried to relax and stick to a nutritional plan. There was alot of mud on the trail and little streams big enough we could only run through. So another round of cold wet feet we go. I managed to stay upright in loop 1, but when I started to descend on one of the hills, I hit some "black ice" and went down and banged my knee. Okay that hurted a little bit, I needed to walk for a couple of minutes to shake it off. So a descent loop 2, I did have some side stitch issues and some knee pain, but I was able to catch up to one or more people on the course.

2nd loop ~ 2:04:14

So on the third and final loop, I was still running but getting tired. I was not following my nutrition plan all that well and I felt it. But kept running for most of it and stayed upright. I felt good about catching up to all the people I saw ahead of me on the trail.

3rd loop ~ 2:19:30

So with all the mud, ice, wet feet, 31 degree weather, and 31+ miles later, I finished in 6:14:30.

overall place: 84 out of 149
division place: 11 out of 19
gender place: 67 out of 116

Dang that was a long day. But everything leading up to my 100 miler is all training for me. On that end it was a good learning day as well. Talked briefly with a fellow "Marathon Manic" on the race course.

Oh yes, I finally got my Maniac singlet, so I guess I'm official now. #750 Marathon Maniac to be exact.

So with the end of the race, my 2007 racing season is finally at an end.

Everybody have a SAFE and Happy New Years.

2007-12-27T03:48:00.000-08:00

"High Tech Santa"

I hope everybody had a great Christmas.

I actually had a pretty good one, for a "gear junkie" like me, I got some cool gifts and spent some Christmas money to get more cool stuff.

An upgrade on my Garmin, via the Garmin 305, cool tech toy indeed.

Spent some of the Christmas cash and also picked up some snowshoes. Now after some heavy snow about two weeks ago, the snow is all gone, C'mon snow, where you at? I want to try these out!

Also so I won't get scared in the dark anymore these should come in handy.

Then after years of being with my wife, I think she understands me now, my favorite gift of all, a gift card from Dunkin Donuts, now that's alot of donuts and danishes for me to try out.

So I should be set for the rest of the '07 and into '08, now the work really begins. My official 16 week training program for my 1st 100 miler starts this week. Kinda of excited right now about the prospect of it, but my legs are kinda of revolting a little bit from my running thus far.

But time to kick it into some kind of running gear right now and see what I'm made of.

I have my last race of the year this weekend, The Huff 50k (31 miles) trail race. Looks like some decent weather for the race on Saturday, mid 30's, with no snow or rain. Hopefully not to much "Black ICE" on the trails. So I'm just hoping to get thru it without falling down to much and have fun running around the trails with some crazy people like me.

Let the countdown begin, But as Racheal Ray says, "Everybody runs on Dunkin", so I might to have to head there first before my race this weekend.

2007-12-17T03:18:00.000-08:00

"Let it snow, Let it snow"

It definitely was an interesting training week for me. I had to take a couple of days off because of my inflamed ankle, it was down right painful for a day of two.

But I got tired of being on the boring stationary bicycle and did a little bit of miles starting Thursday. So since my ankle was feeling better, the weekend was for trying to put a little bit of trail time in my legs. I figure I'd start out safe and do some road running on Saturday. Okay not to bad, ankle does feel better and did 13 miles in a balmy 30 degrees,

So our usual Sunday group run rolls around. Crap there is 4 to 8 inches of snow on the ground.

Ring, Ring, Hmm, okay your not going okay.

Maybe I will go to the gym instead, sounds like a better plan.

Ring, Ring, your own your way to the trails. Crap, I guess I'm going as well.

Three of us showed up for our Sunday Snow follies.

Dang, that was some tough 9.5 miles in the deep snow. But worth being out there. A beautiful site at times seeing the newly dropped snow on the trails. So as one of my TRI-crazies said, "NO matter how BAD it is out here, it is better than being inside."

Tough running, but SO true. I also realized I'm not the only crazy one in our group of ours.

So now it's official, I'm signed up for my 1st 100 miler.

"Thank you for using the website to submit your event registration."

+--- Event Information ---+

Name of Event: 100 McNaughton Park Trail Runs

Distance: 100 Measurement: Miles

Date: Saturday April 12th, 2008

Start Time: 6:00 AM

I actually had this crazy notion on doing the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler in Texas on February 2nd as a training run for McNaughton. But that was even a little bit crazy even in my book. But that should leave me some wiggle room to maybe try a mountain trail run instead. Now that would be an adventure.

Well hopefully everybody has gotten their Christmas shopping out of the way. As for me, it's a crazy jungle out there in the malls, Thank God for Internet shopping.

2007-12-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." ~ Anne Bradstreet

So with my second full week of "trying to get my ASS in gear" now completed, it actually did start out pretty well.

Saturday, with snow on the sidewalks I thought it would be easier to run around the streets and sidewalks than the trails. Boy was I wrong, snow ruts everywhere that did a little dance on my ankles. But after 2 hours running in 18 degree weather, I did actually feel pretty good, but it brought on my ankle inflammation "itis" ~ pissing me off stuff again.

Then on Sunday at sunrise, I figure I would see how it goes and headed out to the snowy trails. A dang deer crossed my path again and would not move. It was actually wagging it's tail. Hmm, could I actually pet this "Bambi', I thought to myself for a couple of minutes. Then I had "When Animals Attack" TV show flash across my thoughts and came to my senses and scared it away.

I was hoping to do at least a 3 hour/20+ mile trail run that morning. But my ankle was pretty jacked up for the day before, so not a great run day, but I got to at least run with some of my TRI-club buddies.

So while still hobbling around today. I decided upon a preliminary race schedule for 2008. I think splitting my year into two seasons worked really great for me this year:

Season One: UltraRunning

Season Two: Triathlons

So season 1 is going to hopefully go like this:

Land between the Lakes 50 mile trail run
Ice Age 50 mile trail run

Also try to complete this new race series:

2008 Illinois Trail Ultra Grand Slam:

Clinton Lake 30 mile trail run
Farmdale 33 mil Trail run
McNaughton Park Trail run
Rock Cut Hobo 50k Trail run

Not sure if you actually get anything besides a "Grand Slam" breakfast at Denny's for your effort, but why not?

Then within that race series will be my 1st 100 mile race (maybe second) for 2008.

Yes, McNaughton Park 100 mile trail run. Okay at least I did not sign up for the 150 mile race.

So there it is for now, Is there more, Hell YEAH,

Hmmm, my TRI-season this year will be along the lines of racing when I can, but I do see a non-corporate Iron Man type distance event with my name on a bib number on it somewhere in the United States.

But for now, season 1 is fast approaching.

2007-12-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

"Relentless Forward Motion"

My "keep moving forward" motivational self-talk has now been replaced with telling myself just to think about "Relentless Forward Motion". I think that has a better ring to it, don't you think?

I figure with this motto, nether snow, rain, ice, or even hail will deter me from getting some trail mileage under my feet.

I think I encountered all that this weekend.

With a winter storm warning over the weekend, my wife questioned if I should be running outside. All I could say was "YES I'AM".

I do most of my training indoors during the week, so my weekend training are meant to be outside, if not the treadmill will really become a "dread-mill" for me.

So in my 1st attempt to run the trails on Saturday. I was driving out of the neighborhood, Hm-mm, stopping the car was not working well. Actually had a near miss. The stop sign told me to stop, but I slid on "Black Ice", luckily the car heading my way on the cross street turned right. Man, that would have really sucked alot.

With that I turned back, parked the car and with my trails shoes on I ran along the streets on the newly formed snow on the sidewalks. I'm sure most of drivers taught I was totally nuts, "Tell me something I don't know"? So with 9 miles in the bank, snow on my face, it was an adventure just trying to run this day.

Then Sunday, the goal was to run the single track trails. I geared up, finally got to wear my cool looking Gaiters (keeps debris out of your shoes) from Dirty Girl Gaiters.

Hmm, nobody showed up to join me today, actually no other car around in the parking lot, I wonder why? must have been that winter storm the day before? you think?

But off I went, I felt like I was totally alone out there running around out on the trails. Kind of spooky running all by myself. Not even a deer or coyote in site. But I told myself I needed to work on my mental toughness and just "LET GO" of my fears.

Even thou it rained or was it hail pelting me briefly at times, getting a little lost once or twice. I was glad I was out there getting some running time in yonder woods, 2 hours and 41 minutes to be exact. Not substantial mileage but good enough for today. I really felt good about it afterwards.

The best part is that I was even able to meet my 50 miles per week goal.

WooHooo..

Because sometimes it is just about "Relentless Forward Motion".

2007-11-27T03:20:00.000-08:00

Dang it's getting Cold Out Here!

So after a week of middle 70's weather down in Florida, I come back to the middle 30's in windy Chicago. OOh what a difference a week makes.

I ran the local 10k when I was down in Florida. I was hoping, well kinda of anyway, running a sub 7:00min pace race. Not sure why, but I thought I could. They had around 2000 people mixed in running the 10k and 5k. Mass start with and out and back course around the local park. I started out not to bad. Running around a 7:00 min pace the first half of the race. Then mentally I felt burned out, legs felt heavy, and taught I rather be running around on a trail somewhere right now. But finished I did with a 46:38 (7:31 pace). I even took some short walking breaks at the end so I'm not sure how I even ended up with that pace.

But overall I finished

18 of 74 in my age group

101 of 453 males

122 of 979 total overall

So I guess I can take that for now and work on getting faster in '08.

So with a trail 50k in about 4 weeks I headed to my woods on Sunday. Cold as it may be. I was able to run a 19 mile trail run. Besides for some deer scaring the crap out of me, I was pretty happy to complete that. At least it was a start, hopefully the start I need to get going again.

Like my Tri friend mentioned to our running group as I started to take off to get some more in miles in. "he's getting ready for a 100". I finally realized for some strange reason, it finally sank in, CRAP I really am. So time to change my ways and get rid of this extra 10lbs I have gained. And yes, start watching what I eat, because I need to find that trail runner in me once again.

2007-11-20T04:33:00.000-08:00

A Mouse and a Turkey

So this week, I'm on a little bit of R&R and visiting my folks down in sunny Florida.

Went to see Mickey Mouse for the umpteen time with the family. Since I grew up in Florida, I have been to Walt Disney world as a kid, as an adult, a newly married man, and now as a Father. How things in your life has changed but Walt Disney world seems always timeless. Just more rides and higher entrance fees.

But I did find of all places a great Ultra food at one of the eateries. PB&J Smuckers UnCrustables. Easy to eat on the go. Now I have to test them out this weekend. As you can see my quest for a "100 ~ miles" is still not far from my mind.

It has still been a little bit of a struggle ramping up the mileage for it. Only 40 miles of running last week. So I need to get my "Bubba" ASS in gear just to even consider taking a shot at completing that type of distance by May '08. I gave myslef till December 31st to sign up for at least one.

So for Thanksgiving day, besides from eating more than I should. I entered a local Turkey Trot 10k. Not sure how fast I will be, but pretty curious to see what the running scene is like in hot and sunny Florida.

So Happy Turkey day to everybody and to everybody whose planning to go x-mas shopping on "Black Friday". YOUR a brave soul.

2007-11-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

Bear Claws and my Frickin Dog

I must say if you want a crazy dog in your life I would opt for a yellow Labrador.

Well mine is 11 years old and goes by the name of "ARIES". After the Greek God of War, but has been more like the God of Chaos in my house.

So I'm finally getting over coming home one day and my wife telling me he trashed my room where I keep everything sacred. Meaning my triathlon and Ultra running gear.

So I went to the local store to get ready for my last 50 miler for the year.

Cool, a whole box of Cliff bloks, margarita flavor, my favorite. I guess my dog's favorite as well. The only thing left was a box of wrappers and his calling card outside in the yard.

So before leaving work Friday, I visited the vending machine. Oh, I'm in heaven, the lost "Bear Claw" has finally been put back in the vending machine after 4 months. I have a big sweet tooth and plucked that sucker out of the vending machine and brought it home and placed it in a safe place, so I thought anyway.

Then I come home, my frickin dog somehow got on top of a chair and ate my slice of heaven. Okay he has finally put me on the edge,

GRRRRRRRR... Anybody want a house broken Labrador who eats like a triathlete and runner. He comes with manly falsies.

So on the training realm. Not much to report, it has been hard getting the long miles in lately. I still have one more 50k scheduled for the end of the year, so I'm just hoping my consistent running will be good enough, because right now my long trail runs aren't happening just yet.

Yes, the 100 mile Ultra Marathon is still on the race schedule for '08 thou. I figure the more I talk about it the easier it might seem. But I have narrowed it down to an easier 100 (if there is such a thing) and pretty much hard ass 100 miler. So hopefully I will get my Ultra MOJO back up to speed in the next few week to start some sort of training schedule for this 24+ hour run.

For now, short trail runs and trying to say hello to some of my friends along the way while exploring around the trails. I think I see BAMBI..

2007-11-06T04:01:00.000-08:00

"I guess you get what you asked for?"

After IM this year, I figure I do something different.

Xterra, Adventure Racing, I even found a IronMan distance Xterra race on the web.

Even thou my skill level is novice at best, C'mon Mountain Biking can't be all that hard?

So After a short trail run, about six of us from the TRi club did something different. Single track Mountain biking, basically means follow the leader around the trails. So for some brainy reason, I left my nutrition back at the car. I'll be okay, for about two hours, no problem riding though roots, rocks, and little tree stumps. But after awhile I got pretty nervous just riding my bike. As everybody was cruising along, I sat at the back trying to keep up. At one point the group split and the lead pack missed the turn marker and me my fellow TRi club member took the correct route.

Hmm, almost 2 hours out here, I was starting to get really tired, starting to actually bonk from lack of nutrition. Something you never want to do when you need 100% concentration on the trails. So how many times did I hit the ground, not once, twice, yup three frickin times.

I have never fallen off my bike that many times before. The worst was the last one, plunging my side into a nearby tree stump. So yes, my right side lower back is still numb and swollen. ooohh OUCH, I'm getting too old for this stuff.

At one time, I called my wife and told her I think I'm lost in these frick'in woods. I think I will be home later than I said.

But after 3 crashes and the lead bike having to run back for me, we made it back. So I realized these die hard mountain bikers are really the crazy ones out here.

But the good thing is that I found some great single track trail running out here. At least when I run I know I will be upright most of the time.

But I will be back riding again on these parts, hopefully will not feel like needing one of these afterwards again.

2007-10-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

3rd time the 50

So, I was not sure how I would manage to run for more than 8+ hours and complete a 50 miler on Saturday. I was actually excited to give it a try. It gave me an adrenaline rush just getting my gear ready for the race. So at around 5:30am I headed to the race site for a start time of 6:30am.

Like all the times I have towed the starting line for this race, they have a credo to repeated before the start of the race:

"There no place I rather be, then with you here today"

On that note, the traditional start happens: The race director says "GO"

So the 1st part was a 2 mile filler loop, I started in the middle of the pack, and was a little bit overdressed after the 2 miles. So I tried to unzip my sleeves from my jacket while I was running. That is when I had my wardrobe malfunction. I got one sleeve off, but the other one I asked somebody to help me. Then the zipper got stuck, so after a couple of minutes trying to remedy that, I just tucked it in my jacket and took off again. At that point I was at the way back of the race and tried to get to back to my original position. Not sure it was the right thing to do since I still had 45+ miles to go.

The 1st full lap went well, I tried to keep a steady 10 minute pace eventhough my heart rate was a little high. As I saw the marathon and 50k turnaround points go by, I felt they were the smart ones this day. So with the 1st loop and 18 miles done, CRAP, I just did my longest run since IM Wisconsin 7 weeks ago, what was I thinking?

So for the rest of the day, I felt the 2nd loop would be the hardest for me, and decided to take it a little easier if I needed to. I also had the bail out option of completing just two laps and getting credit for a 50k race. Even though it would be more like 34 miles instead of 31.

But I was surprised after completing the second loop that I was still not feeling to bad with all the miles I had just run.

So the 3rd and final loop began, somehow I had a gut feeling this was going to HURT. I started out and the wind gust off the Lakefront seemed to be stronger. A strong headwind, something I was not liking at all. But pushed on I did. I was still doing okay from running from aid station to aid station. The motivation came from the 50k and marathon runners on the course.

But at mile 40, the wheels started to come off a little bit. I had a run in with some big burly man at the porto-pody near the aid station. This guy was 10 feet away from porto-pody and a women was using it and just came out, I proceeded to use it as well. Then he yells at me saying: "I not standing hear for no reason". Okay I was thinking, I can't outrun him, I'm at mile 40, so I could get in a argument and have to kick his ASS. But I was racing, so I let him use it and I went on my way. Okay, the reason it was there in the 1st place was because of the race. C'mon big burly guy, YOU SUCK!!!

Enough of that rant!

So at the final turn I was on my way home, 8 more miles. It seemed forever, I was having a hard time just to run for 5 minutes, so I started to start walking a little more. I was getting mentally exhausted and my legs felt heavy and feet felt swollen. I knew I had a couple of blister growing in there. So I started talking to myself to keep going. C'mon, try one mile or 10 minutes a time, I said to myself. Sometimes that worked and sometimes it didn't.

Then the strong headwind that I just ran through was now a strong tailwind. "C'mon Wind" push me through, I think it actually helped. Or I think at that point I just wanted to finish this race.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2 more miles to go. I just put my head down and tried to play mind games and try to see if I could pass people. Boy, my legs were hurting.

Then the final stretch, no matter what, I always run to the finish line. As I turned the corner I saw and heard the people cheering me at the finish. They were telling me to sprint in. You kidding me, Then I saw I was a minute away from going under 9 hours. So I sprinted in and made it, I think the time was 8:59:5o (10:47 avg pace). I wish I could have done better but I will take it.

I was greeted by my blogger friend BAUN at the finish line. A big congrats for him in completing his 1st 50k this day, and a big THANKS for waiting the 2+ hours to greet me at the finish line. I think he is ULTRA hooked.

Overall, it was a great day for me, honestly I pretty much pulled this 50 miler, in no other way to say it, "BUT OUT OF MY ASS." It was hard, but seeing this guy with some kind of cerebral palsy just shuffling away trying to complete a 50k, pretty much put a lump in my throat when I saw him. I saw him finish, now that's determination. So I have no complaints about my aches and pains (okay maybe a little).

My 3rd 50 miler this year, I think I placed around 35 with 109 people registered. Not sure the number of people who actually finished, dropped out, or opted for just the 50k. But with chili in my tummy after the race, I had a great day and yes I'm DONE, NO more 50 milers for the rest of the year (okay, there is no more races in the area to enter in).

I did see the 1st place runner whiz by me, He shattered the course record with around a 5 hour and 30 minute (6:36 avg pace), 50 miler, is that sick or what?

I saw the juggler guy run the whole 50 miles juggling 3 balls, I think he is going apply for the "Guinness" world record status for his accomplishment.

Mann, I love this ULTRA community.

But right now, I think I need more tylenol to ease the pain!

2007-10-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

"Crackers, I tell you"

I think I have lost the rest of my sanity.. I have been trying to debate whether or not to even do this race. I have nothing to prove, I've done what I set out to do this year, so why am I doing this?

Hmm, they added a certified marathon race, I could do that instead?

Hmm, I could always do the 50k?

Hmm, I think my longest run the past 4 weeks was around 20 miles and that includes the Chicago Marathon "Meltdown".

I seriously only have done less than 30 miles per week of running since end of August.

Reading "Studies in Clydeology" didn't help matters either, since his latest post was all about Ultra Marathons he is planning to do.

I actually should be running instead of writing this blog. Hmmm, you think?

So after much debate within myself, Yes, I finally registered:

"Thank you for registering for the Chicago Lakefront 50/50. Your Registration is confirmed"

"Question: Please select a category:"~ Answer: 50 Miles (10/27/2007)

Oh, this is going to really hurt afterwards if I finish the entire 50 mile ROAD Ultra.

So Why do it? I guess I'm just a CRAZY Ultra Runner, enough said.

~ But I think some of you know that already!!!

2007-10-13T04:18:00.000-07:00

Angry Mr. Bunny Man!

So a week has passed since the race debacle I call the "Chicago Marathon". I think it was the right thing to do to cancel the race, but don't really agree how the Race director and Mayor were trying to put the blame on the volunteers and then the runners themselves for the shortage of water.

YES, we have to have some sort of responsibility as athletes to our own health. But when you pay a race fee, I would like to expect some sort of adequate support for our basic needs.

You think?

So as the news fades on this issue and the fingers become less pointed I will put away my "angry" bunny ears for now and see what I will do the same time next year.

But you know what, it did help me get off my ASS and start to do some descent training again.

With the Lakefront 50 mile/50k still looming on the race schedule and going back and forth on why I want to even consider running a 100 mile UltraMarathon in early '08,

I really need to start Running longer again!!!

So with a couple of sessions on the treadmill, my floppy feet are running again and for the most part enjoying it. Hopefully getting close to my weekly goal of running at least 50~70 miles a week. (Crap, Did I just say that?)

But concerning eating more carrots instead of eating a carrot cake, that still is a work in progress.

2007-10-08T04:43:00.000-07:00

Marathon Meltdown!!!

So with the high heat in the forecast I knew it would be a tough day for a lot of people.

I was going to Crew/Sherpa for my friend who was going to try to complete his first marathon.

The race plan was to run around a 13 minute pace and walk every aid station.

We started at the 5 hour pace mark so not to be too far back from the start. It still took us almost 20 minutes to get to the starting line.

The pacing started out well, he actually was running around 12~13 minute pace for the first couple of miles. I had assured him that. "This is a BIG race for the City", they won't run out of water. But starting from mile 1 through 10, I had to fight to get water. Most of the Gatorade was gone by the time we got there as well. People were hitting water fountains in front of condos and parks just to cool themselves off.

Around mile 10 my friend started to slow down considerably, I had made sure to at least find him either some water at the aid stations to keep him hydrated. But his stomach was acting up and he just wanted to throw up. He started to walk more and he felt he was getting hot and was having a little trouble breathing. So I knew it was not going well. So around mile 11, he told me he was going to stop and called a friend to pick him up along the course and take him home. He is doing well now, disappointed, but not discouraged and will try again another time. So I'm glad for that.

After he dropped I was going to run the rest of the way at my regular pace. At that point everybody was pretty much walking. I didn't really think it was that hot until I started to run faster. My heart rate was spiking pretty high at a pace that should be comfortable for me. But I keep running, weaving through all the walkers.

Then at a certain point a cop was saying you only have a couple miles to go, I was only at mile 16, WHAT, is he pulling my leg. Nope, they had re-routed the course and I did not know it at the time, they closed the race at a certain cut-off point. Yes, I got caught up in that cut-off point, but the people who were denied the entire marathon course were all still determined to step across the finish line in some fashion in this chaotic mess. I was one of those determined runners as well.

They even tried to stop us from timing in at the finish line. With only 20 miles of running, I put my foot across the finish line, even got my finishers medal. Not sure if I deserved it?? But they ran out of water, closed the course on thousands of people, and the day looked like a medical disaster zone. But I told my daughter I would bring home a medal for her, and so I did.

(me with my bunny ears)

Personally, it was the most chaotic marathon or even running race I have ever done. With temperatures hitting the mid 80's or hotter. "Runner Down" was a common theme.

300 people hospitalized, some still in the hospital, and unfortunately 1 race related death at the race.

They ran out of everything at the aid stations. They ran out of ambulances to bring people to the hospital. I was totally disappointed of the race organizers handling of the heat!! They knew it was going to be a hot day and did not prepare enough for it.

I truly love my hometown marathon, I will continue to enter it as long as I can run, but was truly saddened by the events of the day. But all the people I knew who ran are home safe and sound, not in a hospital somewhere, including me, so I'm glad for that.

So I leave you with some pictures of some of the brighter moments of the race for me.

Yes! these are guys in drag..

A man running on top of a chicken.

"Go Go" Mr. Testicles..

2007-10-02T03:11:00.000-07:00

October?

So what is October going to mean for me?

Trying to keep my streak alive with my high performance nutritional schedule:

So for the past 20 days. I have at least eaten one of these to start off my day along with 20 ounces of coffee.

~ A Jumbo danish filled with apples, cheese, or cherries,
~A Dunkin Donuts Apple fritter,
~And Yes, Jimmy Dean sausage/egg Croissant.

You gotta luv it, just bought another container of 9 Jumbo danishes to keep the streak alive.

October also means its time again for the Chicago Marathon. It will be my fourth year entering and the fifth 26.2+ running event entered this year (I guess the IronMan marathon would be 6). But this year is a little different. I told my good friend if he signs up I would pace and run the whole thing with him. So he signed up and as of now, he is planning on showing up. So even if I have to scream a bunch of expletives at him, I will get him to the finish line. I think a 20 minute run / 2 minute walk routine should hopefully get him under the 6 hour mark. That is my goal for him anyways. Also hopefully he will also realize when he crosses that finish line that there is more to life than just working all the time.

My goal is just to have fun and maybe get in a little extra miles before the race for my own version of a "Fat Ass" Chicago Run (50k).

October also means the start of more trail running. I did my longest and 1st trail since Iron-Man yesterday (8 miles). I was so excited to be out there again. I was expecting to run with only 3 people, but we had around 9 people to run the trails with. Yes, fresh horse crap on the ground and bugs buzzing around. It was a great morning. But, I was kinda of disappointed at the modifications of the trail, making the trail path a little easier for us folks to run on and building bridges over the two little streams on the route. So being the occasional "Smart ASS" I decided to protest the trail upgrades and not use the fancy bridges. One stream was just a muddy creek, the other almost knee deep, so the possibility of falling into the stream face first would have not been fun but entertaining to the rest of the group. But I ran across and made me realize why I luv trail running, it is always an adventure.

October also means the Lakefront 50k/50 mile on the tentative race schedule at the end of the month. Pretty much a flat Ultra-Marathon road race along the Chicago skyline, so which 50 I might do is still in debate. I have to see how my legs feel after the marathon.

Last of all October means another year my wife has put up with my nonsense. 8 years of marriage on the books now.. So we had our 5yr old daughter pick out our anniversary Dinner yesterday. So I guess a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken it is. Funny thing my wife was okay with it. Ahhh family life.

So what is October going to mean for you?

2007-09-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

"Enthusiasm"

"Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul" ~ Samuel Ullman

For the past two weeks I have been trying to find something to get enthused about again. After 2 years of IronMan racing, I'm feeling a little lost without some definite major race in my sights to train for.

In some ways I cherish these moment. Sleeping in, eating whatever, and being a coach potato for a couple of hours now and then.

But these days are starting to drive me a little nutty.

I need to be in motion!

I need to train!

I guess I also need to train for some kind of "purpose" !

Hmm, the only thing I have been literally training for has been my stomach expansion. I have started to log my split times to see how fast I can go to the nearby Dunkin Donuts and catch my commuter train for the daily grind at work. Always in Zone 2 thou.. Woohoo..

So many thoughts have come my way in what I should be doing for the rest of this year and for 2008.

So here are my thoughts? In case anybody wanted to join me in these little adventures. C'mon, pretty please?

First, Adventure Racing, something I wanted to do this year, but my dance card has been full. Plus I could not figure out how to sneak in a Kayak/Canoe pass my wife after it comes from EBAY.

Second, I always wanted to do an XTERRA race, but suck pretty bad at mountain biking so I will try to work on these skills during the winter.

Then finally UltraRunning, yes my winter sport, for some reason winter running appeals to me. The trail gets more deserted from all the warm blooded creatures that might go bump into the night.

Then about this number that has been spinning in my head, Yes a 100 mile UltraMarathon, should I actually contemplate doing one?

With a 65% or less finishing rate in most 100 mile UltraMarthons, I could actually get my 1st D.N.F.? Then there is this?

How does one train to run 100 miles?

How does one run in the middle of the night through the woods with just a flashlight to guide your way?

But I think I will train for one. With no rhyme or reason and no race picked out just yet.

This will be my "enthusiasm" for the fall/winter months. So let the running begin this weekend. Still a little banged up from IronMan, even after two weeks. I will start out slowly. But time to trade in my road shoes for some trail shoes now.

2007-09-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

Run (Race report: Final)

So this was it, the time to redeem myself from last year!!! I've waited for this moment for 365 days.

Did I pace myself properly on the bike?

Would I lose my composure like last year?

I ran out of T2 and saw blogger IronJenny as one of the lotion greasers and went directly to her and got greased up. Another mini stop in the porta-poddies and with my ultra-hat on my head and my IM spiderman jersey still on my back, I was off. The first couples of miles I knew would tell me how the marathon would go for me. I planned to take it easy the first mile or two to get my running legs under me again and flush out some of the cramping I usually feel right after the bike. Wow, NO cramps at the start, I was actually shocked and surprised. So baby, "GAME ON¨. The silent-running was now in effect again as well. No talking to anybody, No looking at any walkers. Eyes only on one place, 5 feet in front of me. That was the race plan.

So as the miles clicked off, I tried to stay in Zone 2 most of the time. Then on one of the out and back portions, I saw kickstandpam running hard and fast, a determined look on her face, she yelled out "YOU ROCK¨, I just waived as she passed on by. Okay, I have at least a 4 mile lead on her. I should be okay, unless I totally bonk out there.

So around mile 16, I did feel a little bit of cramping coming on, downed some salt tablets I had with me and kept plugging away at the miles. Then I saw a familiar bike jersey, to my shock it was Scott from the TRI club. I knew I might have a chance to find him on the run, but was surprised I actually did. So I actually tried to just go pass him, as part of my "silent-running.¨ But he saw me and said "I was running to fast¨. So for a couple of miles we ran together. Most of the time right behind stride for stride (at least tried to). So around mile 18 or 19, I surged and tried not to look back, but was amazed on one of the out and back portions I had put some distance between me and him.. WHooWeee, could I out run him this day.

But the cramping did start to creep up on me on these last miles. I tried to put in check by stopping at all the aid stations these last miles and taking in some more salt tablets. Then who do I see, the machine, Frank Farrar (the 75 yr old IronMan Legend). He was just plugging away at it, knee badged up, breathing heavily, but there was NO stopping him. It was an honor to share that moment with him: Truly Inspirational. So with last 10k in sight, the IM race actually starts now, that's the theory anyway. I tried to keep focused, but still worried about the 3 TRI teammates running not to far behind me. "EYES in front¨, "No Looking Back¨, "Do the best you can¨, I kept telling myself. So with less than 2 miles to go, I phoned my wife telling her I would be there soon, around 8:00 pm I said. Those last 2 miles were pretty long, but get there I did, walking a little bit. Then I see blogger Pharmie on the turnaround, telling me to "Finish Strong¨. I didn't want to, but those words were all I needed.

THE HOME STRETCH

I zipped up my jersey for the pictures, flapped my arms like a crazy chicken so the crowd could give me some IronMan love, and "YES" they did. Looked for my wife and child and headed for the finish. It was truly all about this moment, running with my child and wife, arms in the air, I heard those words "YOU ARE AN IRONMAN."

I Finished in 13 hours 7 minutes and 00 seconds. TriThomps gave me my finisher's medal, two catchers walked with a me a little bit, I did need them. Got my finisher's t-shirt and hat. Then waited for the rest of my Tri teammates to become an "IronMan¨ as well.

Epilogue:

IronMan Wisconsin is a great race, the crowd support was totally incredible out there. I saw blogger Laurie wearing her now famous COW outfit, that put a huge smile on my face during the run. XT4 volunteering on the back half of the run cheering me on and giving me a huge slap on my ass to wake me up. People calling out my name for support, "GO SpiderMan¨ throughout the entire day. The Tri Teammates who traveled to cheer us all on. The bloggers who I met for the 1st time and the ones who I got to say hello to again.

That is what an IronMan race will always be about for me. Not the finishing time, but all the people I took this journey with. Without them it would have been just a "Long Ass Race¨.

IRonMan Wisconsin 2007 is now done. To everybody, I "THANK-YOU, in following me along this crazy journey. Out of the nine of us from the TRIclub, I was the slowest swimmer and ended up with the fastest marathon time in the bunch. So this day the tortoise did catch up to some of the rabbits in the group. But we all became an "IRONMAN" this day and that is the most important thing of all.

As you know also, this is not the end for me, but just the beginning of something else? What? Only time will truly tell. But I did get this magazine in my mailbox the day after I got back from IRONMAN. Is this some kind of sign or what?

2007-09-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

IRONMAN RACE report (cont.)

Bike

So once on the bike, the first priority was to bring my heart rate to a zone 2. Take in some calories and get settled into a 90 RPM cadence. There is a mile or two of uneven sidewalks and street bumps, so staying in control and not loosing any water bottles, especially avoid getting a flat was a big priority as well. It was going well, until I was not paying attention and side swiped a traffic cone, Mann, after that I stayed more focus, that would have not been pretty going down like that, I thought to myself..

So along the way to the loop I saw kickstandpam on one of the bike stretches. So with my non-talking race policy into effect I waved hello as I passed on by. So after 16 miles, the 1st loop now began. From riding on this course so much these past two years I knew every part about it. When to shift, the road surface, and even the lawn ornaments along the way. Familiarity does bring on confidence, NO DOUBT!!

So I was feeling great out there, my garmin watch was not beating excessively to lower my heart rate down. I did look at a couple of times to see what it was, it said 172, how can that be, I was feeling great out there. Even the long sections of the course I usually dread, I was now riding with ease. So I tried to put that number out of my mind and stay focused. So on one of the hills, I passed a group of riders, low and behold it was blogger ERIN, somehow I picked her out of the crowd going up a hill. We said "hello" and asked how everything was going and then I was on my way. Then on another hill I picked out blogger TRIShannon, I finally got to meet her, even though it was just for a minute or two. Okay I broke my "silent-biking¨ rule once or twice.

Then it was the final hill of the 40 mile loop. My "NEMESIS", last year I walked up it both times, I always remember the SAG vehicle asking if I was okay, "Uhhh YEAH," I said. For some reason, never in training on the same hill I would be okay going up it. Race day, my thighs would cramp and scream out in pain. I guess this day would NO different. C'mon, "PAIN is temporary" as it shot up my quads, keep going, you don't want to be walking it again!!! Pain, keep pedaling, don't look to far ahead. Finally over the top. Pain starting to go away.. Whew, I will see you again in a little bit.

So before the end of the 1st loop I kept on seeing 172 again on my Garmin watch again, which I thought was my heart rate, but it was my actual average bike speed of 17.2 mph for 56 miles.

Woohoo, with a time of around 3 hours 15 minute for the 1st bike split. Hmmmm, could I actually do a 6:30 bike split, a 1 hour PR from last year I thought to myself. I felt great at the halfway point, but I knew I had to slow down. If I didn't, I might run the risk of walking most of the marathon. So for the second half of the bike, I slowed down, which was not hard for me to do anyways, since I was getting a little tired. It was a strange quite feeling the second loop, the racers were more spread out and felt more alone out there at some points in the race. But I felt good the second loop as well, the miles seemed to just click away. Tackled my "NEMESIS" with greater ease the second time around.

So with 6 hours and 50 minutes and with everybody yelling "go spider man," go "bubba" and "go Dennis¨ from everybody along the route, I was finally done on this somewhat windy 112 mile bike course. Another PR, I was so pumped up. Nutrition and my bike race plan worked out so well.

T2

Nothing spectacular here, I rode up the spiral helix for the last time into T2, shoes still attached to the bike and ran in to get changed.

2007-09-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

IronMan Race report (Part 1)

For the past couple of days, I have not been sure how to right a race report or think if I even could.

How do you describe when a IronMan race plan pretty much works to perfection, but I will surely try.

As the 3:30 wake up call rang throughout the hotel room, I was pretty loose and calm and hoping for a great day. The weather projected to be pretty much ideal for biking 112 miles, the water looked to be calm, and the afternoon weather was cool enough to maybe have a good marathon.

After being body marked, I did my final bike check, kissed the wife, kissed the kid. Then headed down towards the swim start. This year I planned to position myself closer to the starting line, but still against the shoreline. There I could still stand without trying to waste energy treading water.

With 5 minutes until the start, it truly becomes a frenzy, people trying to just get in the water, people trying to get the best starting position possible. Controlled chaos best describes it.

Then bang the cannon goes off!!! YES, it was a miniature cannon, I know, because I was pretty close to it when it went off. I need to remind myself not to do that again, it scared the crap out of me.

So with 2000+ people swimming, It felt much like being inside a washing machine for the 1st half of the loop. Getting kicked, slapped, and people hitting my feet. Okay, I probably did some of that myself. But people were kicking so dang hard, sounded like a turbo engine and getting hit by that was not a fun feeling. So the plan was to swim on the outside on most of the first half loop, then swim inside after the first turn, but trying to sight less, I did zigzag a lot out there. But I felt awesome out there, relaxed and thinking about everything and nothing for 2.4 miles.

Then a decision had to be made. I must say, I peed in my wetsuit about 3 times while waiting for the start of the race. I know it's gross, but yes, a lot of TRIathletes do it. So I felt the urge while swimming. Maybe I could save a minute or so in T1 if I do it now, so I slowed down and let it rip, that was a first time for me I must say. So I had to share.

So onward I went, I completed the 1st loop and then started the second. Many thoughts of trying to PR the swim went through my head the entire time, but I tried hard to stay focused at the task at hand.

So in 1 hour 33 minutes 56 seconds I was done, a PR, WooHoo.

Hmmm, kind of interesting as well, because I did not work on my swimming much at all this year. I just tried to do more open water swimming and stay more relaxed. I guess it worked.

So after getting "stripped" from my wetsuit, I ran up the spiral helix, felt great, and saw my fellow TRIclub members cheering us on. Last year I walked in, this year I ran in all the way. What a feeling!!! Once in, I organized myself and got dressed as quick as I could, did a quick stop at the sun tan lotion greasers and picked up my bike for the long bike ride ahead.

2007-09-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

IRONMAN WISCONSIN REDEMPTION

2007 Stats:

Swim: 1:33:56 (15 MIN PR)

T1: 11:52 (4 MIN PR)

BIKE: 6:50:54 (43 MIN PR)

T2: 7:46 (11 MIN PR)

RUN: 4:22:27 (36 MIN PR)

OVERALL: 13 HOURS 7 MINUTES

1 Hour 45 Minute Overall PR

2006 will always be the most memorable for me, since it was my first IronMan finish and the weather was crazy extreme.

2007 will be the most incredible, all the hard work finally paid off for me.

9 of us from our TRI club entered the race, 9 of us became IRONMAN this day, 7 for the first time. 8 of us finished in under 14 hours. Without them, the long training hours together, through the rain, snow, cold, and heat. Them pushing me by just trying to keep up with them on a weekly basis, this day would have not been possible without them.

To the other TRI teammates (Laura, Michele, Greg, and Kerri) who made the trip to cheer us all on throughout the entire day, I thank you!!

To all the bloggers I met on the course, who all became IronMan also, great job everyone. The the others bloggers from TRITEACHER cheering me at Verona, XT4 & BAUN during the run, the blogger who dressed up in a full COW outfit and cheered us all along, and to THOMPS giving me my finishers medal, and the rest who cheered me via the computer, your support was greatly appreciated.

To my wife, the biggest supporter of them all and dealt with my insanity this entire year, she is truly my "IRONMATE".

Now while I still think about this incredible day for the next few days, while trying to get the soreness out of my legs. It's time now to sit back and enjoy the moment and off course down a couple of cheese danishes or two.

2007-09-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

RACE Week

After waiting which seems like forever and now, the days seems to be coming to fast. Race week is here. Time to get totally organized before I check in to registration on Thursday.

Am I ready?

Will my calf hold?

Will I puke like a little kid on a roller coaster?

Those to be answered on Race day, Sept. 9, 2007.

But I got my spider man IronMan jersey picked out for the race I will wear for the bike and the run. The bat wings for my helmet and my UltraMarathon hat ready to go..

Final numbers: 2006 finishing time 14 hours 51 minutes

2007 race number #1317

No time predictions from me....

While doing the 2.4 mile swim, I will focus on that, it will be my slowest and just hope I don't get pummeled mode to get through it.

The Bike: Think about finishing the first loop and then the second with the right heart rate and cadence so I don't trash myself after riding 112 miles.

The Marathon Run: This is what it has been all about for me this year. I will put my head down with blinders on and try to get to the finish line as fast as I can.

The Finish Line: Hopefully with a smile on my face and enjoy the moment crossing the line with my family.

Good luck to all the bloggers I will be out there with. Thank you blogger volunteers who will be out there as well. For those cheering me on via IronManLive , your enthusiasm will get me through the tough spots on a long day.

See you at the Finish!! (I HOPE!!)

2007-08-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

IronMan Wisconsin 2007

Signing up for IronMan Wisconsin 2007 started out rather innocently, several people from the TRIClub was passing e-mails back and forth about signing up.

Hmmm, I was not planning on it really, I haven't even completed my 1st IronMan yet. One, two, three, crap now at least 5 people are signing up. So I asked my wife days before IMWI 2006 if I could sign up for 2007. With a muffled acknowledgment she said "it's okay". So with the credit cards cleared out and the IM Wisconsin finishers hat on my head I was in line for round two of IM Wisconsin.

What was I thinking, It was a hard day out there for me, I still have to schedule my Hernia surgery by the end of the year. But sign up I did, with Greyhound, IronWill, SimplyStu, me, and Runningbanter, along with some other people I ran into.

I did talk to a guy while waiting in line, he was reading the Total Immersion swimming book while waiting to sign up, never did a triathlon before, not sure if he could even swim yet. I wonder about him sometimes?

So almost a year has passed since that day. More miles and sweat I care to think about. More Cliff bloks, gels, protein drinks, and powdered endurance drinks I care not to think about consuming one more day.

What has happened within this year since signing up for IMWI 2007 that day? Hmmm.

Within this year, my daughter has grown older, and hopefully more wiser. I had a conversation with a school administrator on her 1st day of school this week:

Administrator: "First day"

Bubba: "Yeah"

Administrator: "just let her go"

Bubba: ??? I might have to think about that?

Within a year, I've grown older, probably not the wiser.

Within in a year I've made friends with the same people I just used to call my TRI teammates.

Within a year I've ran on trails for the 1st time and loved it.

Within a year I've probably have ridden the most miles on my bike in my life and my sore ass shows it.

Within a year I've had hernia surgery or any kind of surgery for the first time. Waking up and knowing people are still working on your insides is a strange feeling I must say.

Within a year I've appreciated nature, the woods, the animals. What mother earth has to offer while running my Ultra-Marathons. It's a beautiful thing.

Within a year I had a better handle on trying to balance family life with my compulsive OCD endurance life. (Okay, my wife might not agree with me all the time on this one)

Within a year, I learned the most important thing about IronMan 2006, is just not the race, not the many miles traveled to get here. It is was the final moments of my 1st IronMan.

After crossing the finish line I gave the medal to my daughter and I cried. I realized this was the most important part of IM for me. To share it with the people most important to you.

So with IMWI just around the corner, the race is really just a race, to say to finish no matter whatever finishing time I get is not important, would be a lie, but to realize there are more important things in this world;

Within this IM year I've learned this most of all.

So the real taper has begun this week, going to cut out one of the best things in life for me. Ice Cream, doughnuts, and sweet danishes. Oh its going to be hard. But the bathroom scale says I need to.

So onward I go, trying not to get hurt for the next 10 days or so. Going to get my 1st ever massage today to help me hopefully get the kinks out of my sore calf, so I can be ready to run on race day.

The final countdown is on.

2007-08-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

The last Long Ride and Then some.

So on Friday, me and two other TRI club folks headed out for IMooo to ride the course once again. The last long RIDE until race day (I think so anyways). Got there early and rode 20 miles before I met up with the two TRI folks who were planning to do 80 miles.

It turned out to be a great weather day. My plan for the day was to concentrate on my nutrition since I was adding fig newton bars in the mix now to get more calories on the bike. I think it went well on that front so I think I'm dialed in nutritionally, I hope so anyway.

The rest of the ride went okay, at times riding with heavy legs. After 80 miles I was getting pretty tired of riding or maybe just bored with it. Until I saw the group of riders who started ahead of our group. Hee, Heee, they don't know it, I'm going to attack and try to catch up. One by one I did, a hard effort at times but worth the effort just to wake me up a bit. Okay, they were a group of ladies who probably would kick my ass usually in any race, but I take what I can sometimes.

So with 103 miles in the bank this day, I was going to try to do a brick run afterward. I actually did not run the whole week to take care of my calf injury. Not sure how it would hold up. But after I started my brick run I had a strange feeling. WHAT? NO tightness and felt good. So let me run to the stop sign, okay, now I'm here, let me run there and then there. Wow I'm actually finished a 2 mile brick run. I was so excited, things have finally improved after 3 weeks concerning my calf ailments, IT'S ABOUT TIME!!

After I got home I was so excited in running again. I woke up early to get a run in before the kiddo's b-day party on Saturday. Okay, now it's going to get crazy. I planned for a bunch of kids playing outside for the party. But drip, drip. It rained most of the day. But it was a great party, I think even the adults had a good time. Well the kiddo crashed out after the party, now I know she had a good time.

On Sunday, more rain, a severe "thunderstorm watch" my wife told me. Asked if I was still going out to train. Um, yeah, kickstandpam twisted my arm (not to hard by the way) and we met at 5:30 am. Pouring rain and thunder in the background, we took off for a run along the Chicago Lakefront. In the beginning we did not see anybody running out there, hmm why is that, because I think we are a little nuts, ummm yeah!!

But we ran for 2+ hours. Then took the other crazy task of trying to do an open water swim in choppy and cold conditions. With the thunder from the sky gone, raining off and on, we put on our wetsuits and took the plunge. Halfway through, we saw a very fast TRi swimmer we knew walking back. He had enough and got a little sea sick from the choppy conditions. Now I was thinking about all the hamburgers, bratwurst, and fried chicken I had the night before from the b-day party. Okay, now I do not need to see the chummed up version in front of my eyes right now. But onward I went, at times felt like I was swimming in place because of the crazy current. But 2 miles I got in, it took forever, but I was happy in reaching my goal.

So I guess my official taper begins, I guess so, since I really don't have a training plan this year. Still might do a semi-long bike ride, try to get more of running legs back with some slow long runs, and maybe get a chance to do a longer swim. Now If it could only stop raining around here

Hmm, less than 3 weeks left, I must be feeling it, because I think I would start getting really emotional if I saw the movie "Rudy" right now. Quite now, remember that is between you and me okay.

2007-08-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Bike, The Run, and a Half-Hearted swim!

The Bike

Saturday was the Dairy-Land Dare, around 14,000 feet of elevation to climb on the agenda. I drove 3 hours that morning to the start line. Six of us from the TRIClub set out to do the 200k and 2 others did the 100k route.

It actually started out well for me, I was geared up so I would not make the same mistake here I did at the Horrible Hilly Hundred. By running out of hydration 10 miles from the finish, total "Bonking" is not fun.

I think I also dressed appropriately, the black and white IMooo COW jersey made me feel at home in Moo Land.

The plan was to ride at my own bike pace and ride how I felt. Everything was going okay then 12 miles from the start, I go over a little bump then pop. Crap a flat tire, took out my inner tube, so strike two, I had a tube for my 650 Triathlon bike, that's not going to work. Okay, I packed another tube somewhere else in my camelbak. Phew, I found it, finally the right size ~ 700c. I'm glad I was not a total bonehead. Okay now where is my bike pump, DOUBLE CRAP, I left it in the trunk of my car. Now I'm a total bonehead, no way to pump my tube after I change it. So I waited around and flagged down one of my teammates coming towards me. So after I fixed my tire, we went on our merry way. I figure I should stay with at least one of them since another flat would totally suck out here, no pump and only a patched up tube as a backup in case I got another flat. I was a little nervous thinking about getting another flat again so far from the finish.

Let just say the DiaryLand Dare is not an easy ride, the evil twin of the Horrible Hilly Hundred. There was some crazy climbs and one spot that had a danger sign with crossbones posted saying "get off your bike, washout". Let's say I did not do that and got thru that section somehow. I never said I had any sense when I trained. But the DairyLand Dare was a great organized ride, better food and service than the Horrible Hilly Hundred.

On to my riding, I think I rode well, I climbed all the hills, stayed in my saddle on all of them. Even-though my legs burned on some of the long climbs I put my head down and climbed until it hurt no more, which meant I was at the top. Boy it did hurt, my back got really stiff after mile 80, my arms where fatigued as well. My ASS, well, it was not a pretty feeling. I was getting really tired after awhile and wanted to get off my bike. I was not a happy camper from mile 90 to 110. But at mile 111 I felt great, maybe because I knew the end was near.

Riding in the rain the first couple of hours of the ride and then the heat for the rest of the day made things a pretty crazy adventure I will not soon forget. But I finished on top of my bike, no walking up the hills, and my calf held up..Woohooo

Ride Stats:
8 hours 53 minutes of actual ride time

A little over 125 miles total.

Avg speed 14.1 ~ Max Speed 48 mph

Elevation Gain (ft) +13,608 / -13,562

My TRI Teammate asked me If I felt better riding today than before. All I could say was, "NOT SURE, EITHER WAY THIS WAS A LONG ASS RIDE"

The RUN

So for Sunday I had this great idea, after riding 125 miles Saturday, a half marathon would be not to bad. Put another 7 miles in to make it a 20 mile training run. Sounds like fun right. The funny thing was I got two other TRI club people to join me in this little crazy adventure, Kickstandpam and Caroline. So we met up early and ran to the race, approximately 3 miles.

Then the half marathon race started at 6:30am. My goal was just to test out my calf. Actually the rest of my body was hurting as well from the 200k bike ride. But I actually ran well the first 4 miles of the race, cautiously thou. The calf was tight but tolerable, then I did another bonehead thing, or as I was reminded a "Rookie Mistake". I tried cutting across some people, just then, my cell phone flies out of my pocket, I turn back, some guy kicks it actually towards me, then I was on my way again. But after that my calf got really tight and I needed to slow down. So I just took it easy and thought about one step at a time. Walked thru the aid stations and took one or two stretching breaks for my calf. But I finished and actually was pretty happy I got through it not screaming in pain. I was happy with my 2:07 finishing time. I proved to myself I still had some running fitness in me still.

Should I have run it, Hmm, hard to say, but I had to test my calf out and see what I could do. That was my goal, nothing more.

The Half-Hearted SWIM

So after the race, the 3 of us jogged along to TRIbeach for hopefully a open water swim. Let say, I felt sooo tired even trying to put my wetsuit on. The water was a little choppy, but my goal of a 2 mile open water swim was not going to be. I had no form and I think if I doggie paddled I would have been faster in the water. So just a 30 to 40 minute open water swim for the training log this day.

Weekly stats (08/06-08/12):

21.76 hours of training,

206 bike miles,

31 running miles

Some swimming

Dang I'm tired.. So what's on my A.D.D schedule now? More bike riding, I really can't run right now, so more walking on the treadmill. Hopefully a very long open water swim this weekend. Then prepare for a dozen screaming kids to invade my home for my daughter's b-day party this weekend as well.

But for now, I'm going to try to figure out why everybody likes watching the "SINGING BEE" on TV.. I really don't get it.

2007-08-08T03:25:00.000-07:00

Rest, Rain, and the weekend Double..

So I think Bubba's back for now..

My calf pull, strain, or whatever it is behind my leg, is still on the nagging side. But a 6.5 mile run at an easy pace I was able to do after my 2 mile swim on Saturday..

Actually ran in to a fellow Ultra blogger LOraRuns on my run. With hundreds of people training for this and that I was able to spot her pacing her half Marathon group.. But I think I opened my big mouth and told her I'm contemplating the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler, she is planning to do the 50 miler... Oh, I guess I have begun the first step and now the wheels are in motion for this now..

It was a good recovery training week for me thou, I resisted the temptation to train hard, and took it easy... On Sunday with 7 other crazy folks, I rode 52 mile in the pouring rain (I didn't say anything about NO crazy training just easier). But some of the dedicated Tri club folks did do another 30 miles after I was done.. I'm glad I was in a recovery week..

So feeling somewhat rested albeit feeling a little slower, it's time for some heavy volume training the next two week.. First up is the 200k Dairyland Dare (126 Mile bike ride), it's supposed to be at the same level as the Horrible Hilly Hundred I completed in June.

Hmmm, total elevation exceeding 14,000 feet.. At least there is not a 2 mile uphill finish for this one, unlike the Horrible Hilly Hundred.. Oh my ass is going to be numb for days again...Ouchy!!!

Then on Sunday, The Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon... Since I don't want to do something extremely foolish and hurt myself more by racing it. It's going to be a training run + 7 or more.. I going to start really early and run around until I get in at least 20+ miles for the day. Actually something I did last year as well.. Hey, aid stations and some"Bling, Bling" on a training run. You can't beat that..

So that concludes the double for the weekend. Hopefully I can pull all of this off with some other things on my agenda, Because it's time to get my Bubba groove back after limping around for the past two weeks, that dance I care not to do again anytime soon.

2007-08-01T03:28:00.000-07:00

One way to celebrate a birthday..

So last weekend was supposed to be my big birthday run of 41 miles..

Let just say it did not happen :(I have been nursing a calf strain or something like that for the past couple of days. So the run did not materialized, I was a little disappointed at first, but I realized that I was doing the things I loved and spending time with the family is really more important that running 41 miles in the span of one day (or two).

But I was able to get some training in over the weekend nonetheless.

So on Friday, about 4 of us from the TRI club headed out to tackle the IronMan Wisconsin course once again. We headed up early in the morning; the weather was kind of crazy at best. It was pouring rain most of the way up to Madison, WI. But I think either way we all determined to ride that day and hoped for the best. But things changed when we finally got to the starting point. No rain during entire IMoo cycling adventure.

My goal for the day was to work on my race nutrition. Try to lay off the salt tablets because I think that was the cause of getting a thirsty and salty taste in my mouth during my long races during the year. Pacing was also on top of the agenda. I tried not to care who was ahead of me or riding behind of me in the group.

“Keep a high cadence and just ride within myself”, I told myself. Even though my calf was pretty tight and I did feel it most of the bike ride. I felt pretty good out there. So 101.30 miles completed on the IMWI course, not a bad way to start my b-day weekend.

Saturday I was still determined to try to run. Woke up early, headed to the Chicago Lakefront to attempt a long run. It started out fine; the calf pain was there but would subside after I got going. But at the 5 mile mark the pain increased, so I figure I better just walk and call it a day before I hear snap, crackle, and pop, at the back of my leg. I Ran 5 and walked 5, Ohhhh, it was hard watching all these people running. Really hard!!!

So the rest of the day, some friends came over for a little b-day party. Most of the them non-runners/triathletes. Joking around about my crazy endurance adventures. But with all that, they know I have this Badwater UltraMarathon fixed in my head (130+ mile Ultra Marathon in Death Valley). They joked around in a serious way how to crew for me if I ever do it, Ahhh, true friends indeed.

So Sunday was the last hooray for my B-day weekend. Another 52 miles on the bike, so 208.6 cycling miles for the week for me. The most I have ever done in one week ever.

Then it was time to relax and hang around the swimming pool with my daughter later that day. Sometimes I do forget what really is most important than all the miles I did this week.

So this week is my time to rest and hopefully heal up. I think I must be getting a little wiser in my 40+ age now. Maybe some junk food is in the works as well.

That is a form of recovery week I’m sure… Well at least in my mind.

2007-07-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

"The Hammer"

Over the weekend at the Spirit of Racine Half Iron-Man I was going to try to hammer the race, an "A" race for the year.

My version of "Hammering" was to try to go under 5:30 for a Half IM distance race. My PR at the distance was 5:38.

There was about 5 of us from the TRIclub racing, 4 of us are doing IMoo, so this would be the final tuneup before the Iron-Man race. So we tried to make it interesting. We were going to ante up $5 per discipline (swim, T1, bike, T2, run), the fastest time in each event would take home the cash. I honestly did not have a chance to win anything except the transitions times and maybe a good run. I might squeak by with some $$$ at the end..

It was a perfect day to race, mid 70's and for once, fairly calm waters for the swim. The pros started first and my swim wave started 25 minutes behind them. I started in the back and hung back while the fast guys went off first. The swim went well for me, I was swimming fairly straight and tried to push the pace for once. I did get hit alot trying to swim closer to the buoys and people would just cut right in front of me swimming all kinds of way. I must say, the fast ladies have no mercy, they don't care, they just hit you and just keep on going. Scary bunch I must say. But I thought I swam well, but my swim time did not show it at all, maybe I was trying to hard to swim a little faster.

So T1 I was in, trying to win a little bit of cash in the process, I saw my teammate 2 bike racks over and thought I had a chance to beat his time in T1. I know I was out of the T1 first because he passed me on the bike a few minutes later. Crap even with a 2:17 T1 he beat me by 7 seconds. Dang timing chip strap.

So the bike leg went okay for me, I just wanted to get close to my bike split from last year. I felt actually descent out there, but I made the mistake of not taking my 300 to 400 calories per hour on the bike. For some reason I'm still not comfortable riding on my TRI bike either, even getting professionally fitted, changing saddles, I still was getting back pain and hip pain. But I got thru it as the best I could.

So my T2 was fast, but again not fast enough, with a 1:41 time I came in second again also, Arghhh. Out of the money again.

So my last hope was my run. I was hoping for good things this year in my Triathlon running. After running a 1:51 at the RockMam Half IM 5 weeks ago in zone 2. I figures that was a much harder hillier run and this was a mostly flat run, no problem going under 1:51 I thought to myself.

But the "Hammer" fell on me and I lost it. I started out with a high heart rate and could not recover and not bring it down. My legs were tired and I was just feeling totally HAMMERED out there. So my run mostly consisted of running for a little bit and then walking, that lasted for 13.1 grueling miles. Not a fun thing, I was so discouraged and disgusted at some points, I really just wanted to stop and sit down. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that I didn't want my teammates to see me give up this way. So I went on and did a 2:05:51 run, pretty slow considering what I just did at the Rockman half IM a couple of weeks ago.

So finished I did, called my wife and told her of my disappointment and she just said to me, you "finished right," Well I guess I did.

2007 Race Stats
Swim ~ 47:05
T1 ~ 2:17
Bike ~ 2:51:57 (19ish mph)
T2 ~ 1:41
Run ~ 2:05:51
Total time ~ 5:48:50

2006 Race Stats
Swim ~ 39:09
T1 ~ 2:32
Bike ~ 2:49:51 (19ish mph)
T2 ~ 1:50
Run ~ 2:02:28
Total time ~ 5:43:19

Training more and getting slower, what's up with that?

So when I finally got home, I told the family we were going to eat at Old Country Buffet because my comfort food was awaiting me, ahh the little pleasures in LIFE. Actually just gave me heartburn later that night.. Oh well..

So what is on agenda until IM, I'm trying to think positive and eventhough I might be losing my time battles. I might hopefully win my WAR, a PR at IMooo.

I really need to work on my nutrition, regain my mental toughness, and formulate a race plan going into IM. Another training day on the IMWI course on Friday and yup my B-day run on Saturday. Meaning I'm going to run my age on Saturday or do a split Saturday/Sunday run to get all the miles in (Try to anyways)..

Yup I'll be 41 and maybe a Ultra 41 miler might give me some confidence back in my step again.

(quick update: kinda of injured so no 41 miler today, have to figure out something else, hmmm?)

"Ask yourself if you learn more when everything is running sweet and smooth or when you get your ass kicked and end up in the mud on your back" ~ Scott Tinley

I guess time will tell if I have learned my lesson. Until then I really need to call the vending machine people at my work. No "Bear Claw" danishes for a month now in the machines... I really need some right now. Argghhh..

2007-07-17T19:30:00.000-07:00

"Attitude is Everything"

After a solid week of IM training I think I'm finally out of my slump or in other words the "Bubba FUNK" is finally leaving the building.

I was able to get my 2 mile open water swim in this weekend with an added bonus of 100 "team in Training" Triathletes trying to take up the same swimming space as you. Talk about race simulation.

But I must say, my "Bubba funk" has been hard to break the past couple of weeks!

I was tired of training, I did not have the zip in my training nor the passion in my heart. I had a bad attitude towards IM. For a long time I thought my year was just about Ultra-Running. Once my goals were completed I figure I just do some IM training and skate my way through the IronMan race this year. Not put pressure on myself, go through the motions.

Then I read the local sport magazine "WindyCitySports:"

Article: "Attitude is Everything" ~ your legs can only take you so far in accomplishing your goals"

"At the 2002 Boston Marathon Expo, a large banner hung from the ceiling. It said, simply: ALL YOU NEED NOW IS TO WANT IT BAD ENOUGH"

That is what I was missing, the hunger or even the addiction of an IronMan race. Crap, I paid $475 to enter this crazy race and I just want to skate by. What's the logic in that, I thought to myself. So now I'm hungry, not just to show up, but to go for a huge PR this year.

RACE against myself and put 110% out there on race day.

So my test will be this weekend at the Racine Half IronMan. It's going to be one of my "A" races now for the year. A sold out race with 2000 Triathletes.

Do I have the right Attitude?

Do I really want it bad enough?

Do I want to PR or I will fold to the pressure of trying to go faster?

I know one thing I will surely try and after eating a "LONG-JOHN" doughnut this morning, my fix for the week is now complete and Tapering has begun (sort of).

So I should be good to go for now. You think?

2007-07-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

To be a "WIBA"

So on Saturday morning, kickstandpam and me headed off to the Madison, WI to participate in the 2nd annual WIBA training adventure.

So once we arrived, we got ready and headed to the swim area for the 1st adventure.

A 1 hour/1.2 mile open swim was about to begin.

After waiting for the coordinators to arrive we all took off. No buoys to guide off, just head to a fishing dock and swim back. That should give you around a 1.2 mile swim. The swimming went well for me, after 3 1/2 years, the fear of open water swimming has dissipated within me. A great feeling these days, still can't tread water worth a crap, but as long as I go forward I know I will eventually get to my destination

After that, it was time to saddle up for a long bike ride. The game plan was to ride the whole IM course. I started with the 112 mile pack, chugging along. But after several miles, my training partner was not feeling the cycling MOJO. So "twist" my arm why don't ya, I just rode 133 miles 2 weeks ago, so a crotch numbing ride was something I could do without also. So we decided to wait for the second pack and just ride with some of the 70+ mile crew.

They say if you finish the Horrible Hilly Hundred, the IM Wisconsin course will be not to bad. You know, they are right, as I climbed the hills, the monster IronMan hills have become tamed in my eyes. But its still 112 miles and the heat was getting to me a little bit out there.

So after the 70+ mile ride, I just did a short 50 minute run along the Madison Lakefront. I was actually pretty disappointed with my short brick run. So with my usual "anal" self, I ran 2 hours in the AM this morning to make me feel better. Ah, now that was a little better.

So the main goal this weekend was to work on nutrition on the bike. So after this weekend, I realized it is still a work in progress. I also learned I need to work on heat acclimation. If you get a chance listen to the latest podcast on TriTalk, great info of how to get heat acclimated.

But the highest priority was to really see for myself if Steve in a speedo was truly that hairy.. Okay lets give an AMEN to that.

Met some new and old bloggy friends. Always a good time.

Pictured is Steve S., Pharmie, TRiAL, Marty, TriTeacher, and me at one of the pit stops during the ride.

So whats next?? The Racine Half IM in two weeks, time to figure out how to get my potential to become my reality. Another 200k bike ride with the same elevation as Horrible Hilly Hundred. Then another bike ride or two on the IM course. Then I should be ready to go for IMooo.

Oh, I almost forgot, an Ultra Birthday run to match my age at the end of the month. I'll see if I can pull this off, because I'm not a spring chicken these days anymore.

2007-07-05T17:15:00.000-07:00

"WANNADO"

It was hot and humid in Florida, but what do you expect in Florida during the summer.

I was able to do a 8 mile run during my short trip and some early morning trips to the health club. I saw a bunch of roadies and triathlete on their morning ride. I wished I was one of them that morning. No potholes to deal with and long flat roads to ride. But I think I would get totally bored riding on a flat course all the time.

So were do you take a kid on vacation, lets see.. Hmm, WANNADO CITY, where kids pretend to be grownups. They can be RUNWAY models, fireman, policeman, doctors, and work in a miniature grocery store, getting paid in play money so they buy cool stuff like beaded jewelry. The bad part is the theme park song is stuck in my head now. At least some of the Wiggles songs has been replaced by this.

So back to training. Heading out to WIBA and meet up with some fellow bloggers for some IronMan training on Saturday. Me and kickstandpam are going to play with the big boys/gals and plan to do the whole itinerary for the day.

1.5 hour open water swim

112 bike ride (the entire IM Wisconsin bike course)

45 minute brick run

So it will be a long day and mid 90's too. But it's the second annual and I was there last year and had a great time and got to meet some way cool blogger people.

So "BRING IT" I say..The real training begins for IM!!

Time to test everything out. Gear, nutrition, clothing, and even how much butt creme I should apply.

Almost forgot the highlight of my trip to Florida. You guess it, Cuban pastries, the only thing better than cheese danishes are guava filled pastries. Yum.. Yum..

2007-06-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

"ROCKY"

10 weeks out to IronMan Wisconsin and I got desperate for some MOJO motivation.

So what did I do? I rented out and watched "ROCKY BALBOA"

I have been really dragging lately. So I needed some MOJO vibes from somewhere.

How can you go wrong with "ROCKY"?

Looking at my racing schedule I was surprised I finished 3/4Th's of it already.

Wow, I wasn't sure I was going to even get through the first half of it. Maybe that is why I'm feeling a little burnt these days. Or just maybe my self imposed ban on a "sweet danish" for breakfast everyday has been dragging me down as well. But so far I only have been limiting myself to once a week on that.. Wohoo, okay muffins don't count right?

But with some fellow bloggers kicking some royal butt out there at IronMan Switzerland and Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I got a little extra motivation from those performances this week.

Because kiddies, IronMan is fast approaching me these days...

So like in my younger days in the RING, I think its time to lace up my gloves again and in the words of "Rocky Balboa."

"Its not how hard you can hit, it's how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

"It's about how much you can take and keep moving forward"

"That is how you Win"

So moving forward I shall, a little recovery week and some R&R in sunny Florida in the next few days should do me some good. Well if that fails, a box of cheese danishes will definitely do the trick.

2007-06-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

"Horrible Hilly"

So was this Bike ride tougher than the IronMan Wisconsin course. I think yeahhhh.

Were there lot of hills, I'll say yeahhhh to that to.

Did it take me forever, I'll give a "AMEN" to that too...

So the it started out with a bunch of us camping out at the state park where the finish line for the 200k and 100k bike adventure would end. Never been remotely camping, eventhough I had a tent I got lazy and crashed out in the SUV. Okay lets say after that, I think a nice hotel would have been alot comfortable. But I had a great time hanging out with a bunch of my TRIclub teammates.

It started out at 7:00am, nine of us did the ride from the TRI club, 3 were doing the 100k and the rest did the 200k. It started out fine. I knew most of them were faster than me, so I didn't want to get sucked into that and just rode at my own pace. I would catch up with some of them at certain points but it was going to be a long day and it was just a training ride anyways.

So after a few mile I started to get a bad side stitch while riding. It was pretty uncomfortable just riding. I was think to myself, this is not good early on. It was effecting my breathing at certain times and could not figure out the cause. So after 20+ miles, I was able to complete stage one. Hmmm 4 more stages to go.

Okay rest stop ahead, the funny thing was that as soon as I got off the bike, my side stitch was gone.

Stage 2, off I go again, back comes the side stitch, I'm not liking this, I really thought I might have to drop out at this point if it does not get any better. But the pedaling I went on and a D.N.F. was not on my wish list for this day. So after more hills I made it to the end of the second stage, another rest stop, always a pretty site.

Stage 3, things were getting more bearable at this point, my side stitch was starting to subside, and I was feeling better riding and not uncomfortable on the bike as much. During halfway through the stage we had out first casualty from our TRI club. One of the guys was cramping severely and during one of the hills, his cramping locked his legs and he crashed on the road. Luckily there was a SAG (support vehicle) not to far away. But sad to say he was done for the day, but he was okay, that was the most important part.

Stage 4, so after getting something to eat, I was able to catch up with one of the guys from the group and we started riding together during stage 4. At this point I was feeling pretty good. I think I got my second wind, surging ahead of him at certain points. But he started to crash big time as well, so I hung back and always tried to keep him at eye site behind me.

Feeling like crap in the middle of farmland country is never a fun feeling. So I and he eventually made it to the next rest stop. So after him telling me he had to stop two more times. I figure my goal was to get both of us to the finishing line no matter how long it took.

Off to stage 4, another 30 miles (I believe so). So I rode with him a little closer this time. The hills were getting tougher for him as well. So everything was going along fine then at mile 103 I was shifting during a hill climb. All I heard was snap, crackle, and then pop. My "firkin" CHAIN broke on my bike. Never had that happen before. But never fear, I knew there was a reason I liked doing maintenance on my own bike, I wipped out my multi tool and within 10 minutes I was on the road again. I did not even see a SAG car during this whole time, but I was having none of that getting a ride to the finish anyways.

So with 15 miles left, things did get a little ugly. There was actually a shortcut at this point, the guy who I was riding with thought about it, but I tried to give him as much of a guilt trip about it as possible so he decided to try to finish the whole thing as well. My biggest mistake at this point is that I only filled one water bottle full of water thinking it would be enough for me the rest of the way.

So with 3 miles to go, the biggest hill was upon both of us, I was going ahead, my left cleat was getting loose and slipping, good gracious, what now, I'm not going to be able to go up this hill with one leg pedaling. BIKE, please hold it together.

So halfway thru the longest hill of the day, I stopped and looked back and was wondering where my TRI club bud was at. Nowhere in site, okay he must be walking it. Then comes a SAG vehicle with him in the back seat. His legs were toast, I thought to myself you "SUCK" and you might regret it later. At this point I was starting to suffer as well, I had ran out of water and the only hydration was at the finish line. So I tried to pedal along but I alas the dehydration was taking its toll and I stared to walk my bike the rest of the hill. Soo finally making it to the top I got on my bike and made within a half mile of the finish.

"NOW THIS SUCKS", another hill with the finish line at the top. At this point I was "bonking" bad, I got off my bike and was feeling sick, people saying "YOU ARE ALMOST THERE". I wanted to stop one of them and ask for some water. I had never felt this bad before during the whole year. But I was determined to finish. After a couple of minutes huddle over my bike feeling I was going to pass out, I told myself I need to get going. So walking up the hill I did. At the final corner I saw two of my teammates trying to cheer me on, I gave them the universal sign of "BITE ME, THIS REALLY SUCKS". But with a short distance away I got on my bike and rode in.

FINISHED, I did, 133 miles, 9:38 actual ride time. It was 7:23 pm now, I had started at 7:00am. A long crazy day, but I was done, eventhough the course had beaten me down the last 3 miles, I conquered all the hills before then and was proud of myself for that.

Learned some valuable lessons this day and I'm actually looking forward to finish my next 200k in August with similar terrain.

So I think I should be ready for IM000 after that.

Ahhh, no worst for wear on Sunday, I actually woke early on Fathers day, and went for a 8 mile trail run.

What can I say, LIFE is great, sometimes even in a Horrible HILLY kind of way.

2007-06-14T03:09:00.000-07:00

"New Beginnings"

So this week the kiddo graduated from pre-school and will soon enter the official world of school later this year. Alot of changes has occurred during her 2 years of pre-school. The teacher says she is one of her best students and singers. Well, I agree she is the loudest singer in her class, drowning out the rest of her classmates during the graduation ceremony.

A social butterfly, I must say, she likes hanging around boys mostly. Oh brother, she is giving more Grey hairs already. Maybe that is why I need to go run out in the woods for long periods of time know and then.

But this also has been a new IronMan beginning for me as well this week. I was actually content on doing what I can training wise and just be happy with finishing IronMan Wisconsin, since I have had a crazy racing year already. But after my Half IronMan on Sunday, I realize if I don't PR in a big way at IMooo, I will be not content with my results. All this hard-work and stay in the status quo at the IronMan level will not sit well me with me indeed.

So the"casual" training mode has been upgraded to "get your ass" in gear mode for the rest of the IronMan training schedule. I'm still going to have fun and not totally get stressed about the whole thing. But some quality training I'm must do. The plan is still for me not to put a great deal of effort in getting faster in the swim. Concentrate on becoming a better cyclist and put in a semi-Ultra-Running mileage on the run during some weeks.

The hardest part will be trying to limit my cheese danish & bear claw consumption to one day a week.. Oh, I'm starting to get the sugar withdrawal shakes already.

So with that, the epic "critical mass" bicycle ride is on Saturday. The Horrible Hilly Hundred, a sold-out event of 1000 cyclist trying to conquer the hills of Wisconsin. They say if you can do this you should have no problem with the bike portion of IronMan Wisconsin..

"THE TOUGHEST ONE DAY CHALLENGE RIDE IN THE MIDWEST" the caption says!

Hmm, I think folks, this is going to hurt, maybe in a big way. My longest bike ride this year has only been 70-80 miles. So this will be 1 of 2 on my 200k(124 mile) bike ride training schedule. But a fun day it will be, because "suffering" does need company. I just hopefully I can stand upright at the end of it..

Time to become a VIKING!!

2007-06-11T03:22:00.000-07:00

"The Rock-Mann"

So my 1st triathlon of the year was Sunday. A Half IronMan, no doubt ~1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, then a 13.1 mile run. I wish I could say I had a stellar performance, but it was not meant to be in my legs this day.

I started the week out being sick the entire week before the race, actually still trying to get rid of this dang cold. Arrgghhh..

In the morning, I met up at the race with some fellow TriClub members to pick up our packets and get settled. It was going to be a perfect day for the race. An Inaugural "Rock~Mann", 1st time race director also, so hopefully everything was setup accordingly.

So around 7:00am the swim start went off. I think it was a little bit chaotic, it was a mass swim start, but I 'm not sure where the exact starting line was. But off everybody went heading for the first turn buoy. It was a little bit jammed up in the beginning. When you have 400+ people heading for the same object it can get a little bit messy out there. But I did feel I was swimming okay, swimming with other people no fact, that meant I was not getting totally blow away out there. The water was calm entire swim, but then came the turn and the big patch of seaweed that waited for us all. The seaweed was pretty thick, the worst I swam in so far. It was pretty relentless, It was all over my head, in my mouth, at one point I thought I was cocooned in it for a second. Not a calming situation for a not so fast swimmer in the first place. But somehow I made it through the two lap swim. I made a mental mistake or two out there, like swimming towards a lifeguard, thinking it was turn buoy. Crap, that put me way off course. Not sure what my total time was, but I guess I'm used seeing most of the bikes gone from T1, which included both my teammates. So what else is new.

So for T1, I had this "bright" idea, to attach my shoes to my bike when I left T1, it makes for a quicker T1 they say. So after the bike mount line, I put one foot in and then started to ride to put the other foot in. OH, that did not work, the other shoe scraped the ground, I was stopped dead in my tracks. So after 3 attempts and people looking at me, I finally was on my way, but felt like a total dork trying to do it. I guess I should have practiced this "bright" idea first.

So the first half of the bike went well, I was passing alot of people on the bike, I had my egghead aero helmet on and was riding at a descent pace. I had passed kickstandpam early on, and was trying to track down the two other people I knew racing this day. I knew they could get me on the swim but I was determined to reel them in. But after checking the time of my first half bike split, my other "bright" idea of avg 21 mph on the bike was not going to happen. I was starting to loose steam, getting tired after 50 miles, my ass was hurting and I wanted to get off the bike and start running. So I think I averaged around 19 mph for the 56 miles, not any better or worse than I usually do, but I so wanted to improve so much this year.

So T2 was pretty uneventful, I had reeled in one other person on the bike and just had to figure out where my other TRI club member was to get pass him some how. But the run was mine, I felt I could catch up to him.

So after mile two I saw my fellow TRI member, he was having some major nutrition issues and was walking, I said hey "Bill", which would have been okay, but that was not his name, maybe I was getting a little loopy myself. But a medic volunteer was on his mountain bike near him, so I went along knowing he had support out there.

Then the showdown began, I was leaving for my run when kickstandpam was coming into T2, so she was not to close behind. But I had the male ego thing going for me, actually better yet the male UltraRunning ego, so I could not let her take me down. On one of the early out-back sections we passed each other, to my surprise she was going out fast, a fierce determination in her eyes to reel me in. But I had a least a half mile or about 8 minutes on her. So I know I could not slack off. The run was a pretty undulating course, something I actually prefer to run in. I was keeping in a zone 2 pace, actually ran really comfortably, I even shocked myself.

So on the last 3 miles I knew I had held off the charging kickstandpam, I ran a descent 13.1 mile run, since I hadn't done any brick work, I was happy with at least this part of the race. I think I did a 8:49 minute pace. Not really fast, but it was okay for now.

So the total time was 5:45:23, not even close to my 5:30 time I wanted to do. Yes, I'm a little disappointed with my results, but felt more comfortable doing the whole distance as a whole, so hopefully I will get faster next time. I'm at least not getting slower, but this consistency thing is starting to not sit well with me these days.

But like all things, you give it your best shot, and I had fun racing with some friends, especially since I finished ahead of all of them (hee hee). As for kickstandpam, her first Half IronMan, she did awesome, so it was a GOOD day indeed.

But please Race Director I will be back next year, but I want my T-shirt next time.

2007-06-03T21:40:00.000-07:00

"Ode to the HIM"

My 1st Triathlon Race week is upon me. I have had consistent 16+ hour training weeks for the past two weeks. Even-though I'm pretty more laid back this year about Iron-Man. I call my "Causal" training mode, but my A.D.D. does tend to take over and has me Triathlon training in only one gear. "More is better". Still not sure it is the right approach, but hey, that's what I'm going with this year. Volume, Volume, Volume!!!

My weekly goals from now on:

Cycling: 120~150 miles per week

Running : 30-35 miles per week,

I suck at swimming ~ goal just to stay afloat each week

This weeks stats:

Cycling: 128.32 total miles
(Outdoors: 64.07 miles)
(Computrainer: 64.25 miles)

Running: 32.3 total miles

Swimming: 5700 meters/yrds (same thing right?)

One freezing Ass open Water 1 mile swim!!

I have been trying to concentrate on trying to bike ride at a faster pace lately. Even though I got dropped like a bad "blind date" by the 23+ mph avg. pace group at our TRI club ride yesterday. I at least made the effort and stayed with them for a little while. That is a big change for me, I'm usually just content just to hang back and look for "road kill" on the road.

But I must say, trying to go faster is not in my comfort zone just yet. I think I prefer to suffer for longer periods of time at a more constant mind-numbing state then feel my legs burning from the lactic acid I'm generating. Oooh ouchy..

Hmm, so when is Ultra season again for me?

So with my TRI race (Rockman Half IM) coming on Sunday. I will try to PR in my bike split and try to hold off the charging kickstandpam during the race.

Until then, I will leave you with these thoughts for the week:

"Don't wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater." ~ Mary Manin Morrissey

2007-05-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

TRI Mountain

"The person who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." ~ Chinese proverb

So today has been the end of my first full week of IronMan training. It has been a little bit of adjustment from trying to run 50+ miles a week for my Ultra training and now limit my running to 30-35 miles a week. While filling the void with more cycling and swimming.

My mountain has changed, the view is definitely different these days.

From getting my professional bike retrofit that only cost me under $60 instead of $250 last year. WooHooo

No more rocks to hop over or creeks to run through these days. More of a sore ass and butt creme in the mix.

My TRI mountain is upon me now.

I have always been the consistent TRI racer the past 3 years, now I need a change, a change of pace actually. To go a little faster this year, to feel good at a faster pace is the view from my TRI mountain I'm looking for.

So the first stone has been carried away. My first 10k of the year, actually probably in the last 2 years. I think it was a PR (official time 45:50/7:23 pace) even though at that pace I was fizzling out at certain points.

But a stone carried away nevertheless.

I will conquer my mountain one day.

Then I will sit down on my mountain and try to find another stone to carry away from somewhere else .

Happy Memorial Day to all !!!

2007-05-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

IronMan ~ In casual mode

"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved." ~ D.H.Lawrence

So after a week after my 50 mile ultra, I'm trying to get back into 100% IM training mode.

But this year is a different year, I'm a different person, (maybe a little bit more endurance crazy?, maybe just a tad)

All last year I was 100% focused on Iron-Man. I ate, scheduled my life, and even dreamt about Iron-Man.

But this year I'm a little more relaxed about the IronMan Wisconsin race. Maybe since I finished last year in one of the worst conditions ever on race day (in my humble opinion). Or maybe because I've ran an Ultra in -20 below snowy weather and have also ran in mud for 12+ hours already. Maybe I'm ready for what mother nature will bring us this year. What else is left, shall I dare say?

So this week I only had a grand total of a 2 mile brick run along with some swimming and cycling during the week.

Hm-mm, I thought I had a solid IronMan training plan this year after my Ultra Races? I've come to the conclusion that my Iron-Man plan I was going to use is pretty much out the window now.

So from now on I'm just going to go for simplicity: swim, bike, and run at least 3x's a week (long, medium, short) and then repeat. Throw in some core and strength training and try to hopefully be 1 second faster than last years IronMan time.

Sounds like a simple plan? Maybe sometimes I think they do work the best?

I have a Half IronMan race coming up in 3 weeks now, my 1st TRI of the year, I've pimped out my ride, pimped up thyself with a AERO helmet. Not sure yet what this Ultra Bubba can do, but I think I better go fast if I'm going to look like an egghead with this thing on my noggin.

But for me, honestly at the end of the day, I'm in it for the t-shirt. I just wish they wouldn't come in white all the time.

Plus at IronMan they don't give you your t-shirt until you finish. So save me another X-large would you please, because I'm coming to get it now.

2007-05-14T16:57:00.000-07:00

"ICE AGE 50 miler"

Since the race is supposed to be a 90-minute drive from chi-town, I figure I wake up early and hit the road. So left home by 3:30 am so I could get there around 5:00, a good hour before race start of 6:00am.

I must say that as an outdoors/nature loving state, Wisconsin is pretty good, but I must say the county road system in Cheeseland is hard to figure out (TriTeacher, please tell me there is a logic to those county roads). So for a while there, I was not sure where I was going, where is highway 12 and county road H? I was getting extremely pissed finding the right roads. I was pushing the pedal to the metal trying to find the start area, with 30 minutes left I was seeing a "DidNotStart" flash across my eyes. I started screaming in my car and honking my car horn because how could this happen, how could I blog a post about not even starting because I got lost finding the starting line.

Then a miracle happened, after seriously giving up, I saw a person who looked like a runner so I followed him. With 15 minutes to spare I found the race site and I was able to pick up my race packet. After scrambling around to get my drop bags in the right place I headed out to the starting line.

Whew!!!!

So, "Ready, Set, Go" we were off. (You gotta love these Ultra Starts).

The first section was not to bad at all. Wide running area and terrain I usually train on. I just wanted to start out in a causal pace. Not sure how I would feel, just glad at this point to actually be running after almost posting about a D.N.S.

After the first out and back loop section, we started out on a different trail, which consisted of single track. I mostly ran with different running packs at this point. It was really good to have some running company. Just hanging in the back hearing about their upcoming and past running adventures from some of these veteran UltraRunners.

So let say, I usually don't run on single track when I'm training, something I must work on for my future Ultra races. I was the third person in a running pack of four. There was actually a eye level twig branch sticking in the middle of the trail, so I moved it out to the side, along with me. I side swiped some rocks and nearly had fallen. The runner in the back says, "Good save". Happy about that, I must have been daydreaming just for a second or two, then I felt my toes smash against a rock and the next thing I realized is that I'm heading face down to the side of the trail. "Oh crap," the other runner asked if I was "okay", "Yeah" and then I picked myself up and started running again. After running again, another runner in the pack just said, "we all fall, one time or another" that actually put everything in perspective. That is the "Nature of trail running and Ultra Running" I thought to myself. As long as you can get up and keep going that is what it is truly about sometimes.

So after 20+ miles I was feeling really good, I started to push the pace a little bit, so I thought anyways. My GPS watch was loosing its signal at certain times in the woods, so not sure if I was running faster or not. So did that for a while but realized I only ran a couple of miles and needed to settle down before I "crash and burn."

They had aid stations every 4+ miles and two-drop zones for special needs. I was drinking Succeed Amino, but after 30 miles I was getting dehydrated even thou I was drinking every 15 to 20 minutes. I had this salty taste in my mouth for most of the second half of the race. So hopefully I just needed some H20. But I must say the aid station water was smelling kind of funky. It might have been clean water but it definitely didn't smell like it came from a "natural spring". So I tried drinking coco-cola and with some chocolate caffeinated gel shots. I think I found my new hydration combo of choice. It made me more alert and actually made me feel like running again. You have to love those "caffeine" buzzes.

So still running along, stubbing my toes at different times against tree roots and rocks, almost falling two or three more times, but I was able to catch myself, still after awhile became annoyingly painful nonetheless. I was really glad to see the 40-mile aid station coming up. I knew of a blogger that was going to be there. Eventhough we have never met before she made me feel like we were old friends. Lora Runs is training for her first 50 miler in 2008.

After a couple of minutes another blogger came running up, Julie B, a veteran Ultra Runner who just won the 100 miler at McNaughton 4 weeks ago, I only did the 50 miler at McNaughton and I was still tired from that. A brief introduction and I was off trying to catch up to Travis, another ultra blogger (McNaughton 50 mile finisher), I had said hello to at the beginning of the race and exchanged some hello's at certain sections of the race. I knew he was at least two miles ahead, but I could always try to catch up to him. But my main goal was to make it under 10 hours for a finishing time, so with 7 miles to go I was trying to go as fast as I could. But the 10-hour mark slipped away with a 10:01:35 finishing time. That was okay, I gave it my best shot, I will try again next year, and as for McNaughton Ultra I will be back for the crazy mud race as well.

So after the race I got to talk with some of the Ultra Bloggers I met during the race, hung out with Lora Runs to watch the other finishers come in. It was a well run race, great weather, not to many bugs, and the volunteers were terrific. At one aid station they all clapped for us and said words of encouragement. That is something I will always remember from this race. It was really touching.

But like always the worst part of any long race is always the body after effects, my feet and toes were hurting, but good day nonetheless.

So what is my Ultra schedule like for the rest of the year, well I'm going to try to get a Trifecta by the end of the year (and after IronMan Wisconsin, of course). An easy Lakefront 50 miler or if I can swing it, I would like to try to become a Masochist one of these years. Either way my Ultra goals were accomplished, two 50k's and two 50 milers in the last 5 months while trying to train for a IronMan, yeah I guess a little crazy. No wonder one of my TriClub members introduced me as the honorary TriClub Nut. Well I figure somebody had to be it. Why not me.

But I leave you with this, a quote from the race director from McNaughton that e-mailed us about a Crazy Ultra trail race with a "Death" division actually as a race category (no Kidding):

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn-out,shouting, 'Holy sh*t! What a ride!'"- Unknown Author

(PS. Oh, I'm not done yet!!!)

2007-05-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

Give that man a "Buckle"

Lets just say my UltraRunning season is done for now until after IronMan Wisconsin in 16 weeks.

Not sure how I would do. With little running the past 4 weeks because of my ankle troubles.

I did see the HMO doc Wednesday, definitely no stress fracture, told me pretty much I should be fine. But have referral with the foot doctor to make sure.

It was "game on" after that..

Hmm, longest run was a 12 mile trail run the past four weeks. I had to go with "UltraRunning is 90% mental, Oh the other 10% is also mental" theory.

Well I finished in 10:01:35, goal time was a sub 10 hours. Oh almost there, but I met some nice Ultra bloggers and had a great time just hanging out.

Overall goals were completed, it wasn't pretty but I'm happy nonetheless. Did I stay upright this time. Not exactly.

I did learn some valuable lessons, that a rock versus my toes is never a good outcome. Also trying to run 50 miles on any course is always a long way for this newbie UltraRunner.

But for now, I'm tired and in a little bit of pain. So race report later.

Tomorrow I take the wife out for a "Mother's day Brunch", because it is time to pig out and restore some balance in Bubba's life with some family time.

2007-05-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

"Blow me down"

So Sunday was the annual Joliet "Sudden Century" bike ride. I think it was for me the third time doing the ride. The 1st year doing 60+ miles almost killed me. I guess I have got a little more mileage in my legs since then.

The message went out to try to have a good TRI club showing.. "Let's get at least 20+ people out there".. I had started out a little bit earlier to get a little extra miles in before we all met. Mostly because of time constraints and honestly to warm up so I could at least have any chance to keep up with the fellas in the club.

Wow, it was a great turnout..

I think we had at least 20 riders out there.. It is always fun to ride with Mr. Speedy "running banter" and "Boston" kickstandpam. It was also cool to meet Clydesdale trot for the first time.

My plan for the day was just to do 70 miles, some people where doing the 100 miles, but I was not mentally there to crank out the extra miles.

So I knew it was going to be a windy day, when you hear the wind howling and the flags rustling uncontrollably on top of the buildings.

Well it didn't disappoint. Wind came from all sides at different parts of the ride. I think I had to lean onto one side just to stay upright at certain times. The wind was non-stop, at certain points I was asking myself where is that "f@#@#@ing" rest stop.. I needed a break. A coworker later told me today that he lives in the area and they reported wind gust of 30+ miles per hour.

But 69 miles and 4.5 hours later, I was one mile short of what I wanted to do, but that was close enough. I didn't feel to bad out there, even wearing an ankle brace the entire time.

So on the injury front, so far, besides for some minor swelling on the ankle, I have been relatively pain free for the past couple of days. I still have a walnut shaped knot on top of my ankle, so the doctor appointment is still on for the week.

But I'm a little more confident to at least try to finish the 50 miler on Saturday..

Because after this, like my bicycle shorts says, it's Go!!! time for some serious "IRONMAN" training..

Dang, I only have less than 16 weeks left to go for IMWI.. Where has time gone, but you know after IMWI, I'm back to finish the year off with some UltraRunning.

So hold on, because remember "please stay in your seat until "Bubba's" crazy ride has come to a complete stop"

PS. On the nutritional front.. I've switched from the "Big Texas" Danish to the "Original" Bear claws in the vending machine. Mann... those things are so good. Yummy!!

2007-05-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

"My Happy Place"

"As UltraRunners, we hide in the woods for hours, and we need the time away from everything, Some people call in touch with yourself, others call it getting in touch with nature, still others call it having a good time: whatever it is, it's purifying" ~ Francesca Conte (UltraRunner)

As I head out to my place of "serenity" this weekend. I'm searching for a little bit of "purification" to jump start my running. With still a sore ankle that comes and goes on a daily basis. I need a restart. This whole lack of trail running has put me in a chaotic training state.

Bubba's endurance world is out of balance..

Splurging on cinnamon danishes from the vending machine at work (it says it's the #1 seller) and Jimmy Dean Sausage/egg sandwiches for breakfast. Not a nutritional diet a endurance athlete should be consuming on a daily basis. Chaos in the form of food indulgence. There could be worst things?

But I did have a little bit of self-control. I resisted the urge to do any running this whole week. Did a couple of sessions on the elliptical machine to replace my running. I must say, I can handle running on a treadmill just fine, but an elliptical machine is not for me. All I could think about is "John Little's Gazelle Glider Elliptical Machine" infomercial.

So after completing a 12 mile /9:07 pace trail run this morning wearing an ankle brace. Hopefully I'm on the right track. I probably will not feel the effect of the run on my ankle till the next day. But so far so good, besides normal twinges that are still tolerable.

With regards to the ICE AGE 50 UltraMarathon, Thank-You all for your comments and concerns on trying to run my upcoming 50 mile Ultra on a sore ankle.

I plan to see the doctor on Wednesday. But according to the latest edition of "Runners World", I think I stressed my "Tibilias Anterior Tendon." Still not sure how good or how bad that is yet?

But for now I remind myself the words I always tell my daughter when she tells me "I can't", I always tell her "you have to at least try". So I'm going to take my own fatherly advice and tow the line next weekend, beyond that everything (conditioning and a sound mental state is still to be figured out). But yes, if my daughter was injured I would tell her to maybe not do the race. Since my dad is retired in the "Sunshine State", I guess I will not be calling him anytime soon before my Ultra race.

Now off to a Sunday LSD ride with TRIClub at the "Sudden Century Ride", that will hopefully put me back on my IM training track as well.

2007-04-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

"Short Memory Loss"

" I think UltraRunners must have a very poor memory or no one would do another race. You tend to forget the pain and misery and only remember the thrill of accomplishment. Sometimes you even welcome the pain because it causes you to overcome your weaknesses and become a little stronger each time." ~ Bethany Hunter (UltraRunner)

Well folks, two weeks after the McNaughton 50 miler, I'm still having some ankle issues that is not going away anytime soon.

The Ultra race did a little dance on my ankle.

So Ultra training plan B, C, and D is going into effect this week. Time on the boring elliptical trainer and StairMaster. I have less than 2 weeks to bring myself to the starting line of my second 50 mile UltraMarathon in four weeks.

Hmmm, what to do?

1) Do I show up?

2) Do I D.N.S.

3) Do I drop down to the 50k?

So I guess the decision for me for now is going to behind door #1. I think I have enough fitness to be able to make it all the way. I guess trying to do Half-Ass of something is better than Half-Ass of nothing. That's my thought anyway.

Do I run the risk of further injury? Maybe or Maybe not. Proceed with caution, I've been told.

It's just 10 miles than repeat 5 times. Right? For me it is more of a scouting mission or planting the seed for maybe next year's run of the Kettle 100. Plus I really wanted to wear my new trial running hat that appeared on my door step one fine day.

On the IM training front, a semi-solid full fledged training week minus the running :( A second straight week of outdoor bike rides (40 & 50 miles over the weekend, it's a start) and two flat tires. A flat tire for the second straight week as well. Some days I think I would rather be running.

2007-04-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

"Bike Reality and Meaning"

I must say all week long as I was pretty excited of doing my first outdoor bike ride with my TRIClub... We had around 15 people from the club riding.. It was going to be a great day..

So not sure how many miles I would totally do.. My goal was at least 50 miles.. So the first half was great.. I felt good and was riding at a moderate pace and not feeling to bad... Then I see my rear tire becoming low, then somebody told me "I was bouncing on my bike".. Crap, I stop and hear a hissing sound.. Flat tire.. I was glad some of the group stayed with me...

But after that it seemed my cycling went downhill for the day. The strong wind and fatigue started to go thru my legs. Let just say at the end of my 55+ mile bike ride, it was not pretty.. I was dragging to keep up with group and a dose of "Bike Fitness Reality" smacked me in the face.. Since I have around 7 week to my 1st triathlon race, a half Iron-Man, and a 200k bicycle ride on a hilly route a week after that, I think I need to start biking more.. You think??.....

But the crazy part, at some points during my ride, I thought to myself I really rather be trail running then having to deal with this... So as I reflect on my UltrRunning plans for rest of the year.. I think I want to continue to plant the seeds for next year (taking an Idea from TriTeacher and SkiRough).

So even-though I'm limping around today with my ankle still injured from my 1st Ultra (I think I have ..Footballer's Ankle ~ anybody had that before?)

I signed up for the ICE AGE 50 miler happening on May 12Th.. Because I think I would regret it if I didn't.. Even-though my body is telling me otherwise, I'll register for the race using my heart... Not sure how I'm going to do, It will be a "B' race for me so this might not be pretty... But I think necessary for me to plant the seeds for next years crazy adventures.

Finally, while I'm reading this book

I read this race story which explains in words: My reasons why?

"Ultras are more of a competition between me, myself, the course, and the distance. UltraRunning pits my mind against my body. It is being outdoors where few dare venture, either with friends or alone with just my God. Ultras are a test of what the magnificent human body can do and what the mind will allow. I can think of no other way to truly feel alive. Running is not just what I do; It is who I am. For me, sleep-eat-work-TV-then-repeat is not enough. I need to see things. I need to see a squirrel scramble in the snow, then jump up onto the branch and run full tilt with no fear of falling. I need to hear a deer snort out a warning that I am perhaps not where he thinks I should be. I need to feel the wind, the breath of Mother Earth herself, tickle my ears and cause the trees to sway and dance around me. I run to be fit and healthy, to be fast and strong, and to accomplish feats that seem unobtainable to many. I enjoy discovery of that which I am actually capable: of how far I can push myself. It is why I live"

Or in simple terms, my wife calls it "MY MID-LIFE CRISIS"

2007-04-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

"Final Stats"

So the final stats for last weekend's Ultra Race is in.

It was a tough day indeed for the 100 and 150 milers..

150 Mile: 40 Starters / 10 Finishers

100 Mile: 61 Starters / 27 Finishers

The rule was if you didn't finish what you signed up for, you were not counted as finishing your event.. How cruel is that but understandable.. I know they will be back to finish the job next year..

I do have a new fond respect for these 100+ mile runners and anybody doing any kind of 12+ hour endurance events.. The darkness, mind games, and just sheer endurance it takes to go thru this is inspiring..

As for my 50 miler stats: 32nd overall out of 122 starters (top 26th percent) I was hoping for a top 30 finish.. But I'm pretty happy I was so close to my goals.

Something to shoot for next year..

Now as the pain on my body starts to lesson. My medication to control my "Endurance Compulsive Disorder" is running out. (I only get a weeks supply at a time) I'm ready to start training again. Not just any kind of training, Iron-Man training..I do have this race on September to train for...

So hopefully a little running this weekend and my 1st outdoor bike ride for the year.. Whoop, Whoop. Time to join up with the living and my teammates in my TriClub for a little ride...

As for my UltraRunning, it has taken awhile to sink in.. The journey and meeting some people at the race was what I will cherish most.. It is a part of me know and hard to get out of my head:

Hmm, ICE AGE Trail 50? From Zero to 100 in a year?

Thank-you bloggers and training buddies for your comments and well wishes. I did think of you out there, knowing in a virtual way that you were waiting for me at the finish line. Eventhough unavoidable sometimes, a DNF would have not been fun to write about..

On a blogger note, if you can give up a bloggy welcome to one of my Teammates and friends who just finished her 1st Boston marathon. SHE will be towing the line with me and some others at IM Wisconsin and become and IronMan for the 1st time, that I have no doubt..

Everybody have a nice weekend. It is finally above 60 degrees in Chi-Town. WooHooo.

2007-04-17T04:44:00.000-07:00

McNaughton Ultra Race Report

As I drive down Friday night to go to the race location. I had a sense of calmness of what I was about to do. I thought I was ready. I felt I had trained the best way I could and I thought it would be enough.. And for some strange reason I thought the course was not as tough as I have heard.. Boy, I was totally wrong on that..

So after checking in the hotel, I headed to the race sight to pickup my packet and wanted to see the people who where running the 150 miles. A small group, probably around 40 to 50 people went off into the night around 6:00pm.

So on Saturday morning I left for the race early to get a good spot for my gear. It was probably around the mid 30's. While waiting around I saw some of the 150 milers finishing some of their loops. At this point, they had run for almost 12 hours non-stop in the woods.. Crazy stuff I must say...(After finishing the wimpy 50 miler, I could not even fathom doing 150 miles out there)..

So at 6:00 am, the 100 and 50 milers took off into the darkness. Even-though it would be sunrise soon I wore a headlamp just to be safe. It was Kinda of a
surreal thing taking off for a new adventure for the 1st time. "I
was actually going to try to do this". I thought to myself.

Loop 1: My goal for each loop and the entire race was to stay within a zone 2 Heart-rate no matter what the pace. Especially for me, this would be one of the hardest loops because it takes me awhile to get into any type of running groove. But my race plan kinda went out the window anyways halfway through the 1st loop. I actually was not surprised. The course was mostly single track, so at certain points in the loop, I stayed with certain running packs and followed their pace. Not sure what my first loop time split was but I realized after finishing this loop. This course is "Hard ASS, I'm definitely not In Chicago No more"

So a quick pit stop after loop one. I knew it was raining during my 1st loop, but I was trying to ignore it most of the time. But after stopping for a few minutes to re-fuel, I realized, "Dang it is really raining out there".

So loop 2 hear I come.

Loop 2: I must have been trying to be in my "happy place" for a little while, then I heard, HEY, HEY... So I turned around and looked.. Crap, I missed the turnoff and was going the wrong way. I think that woke me up, you think?? I really don't want to get lost out there and add any more yardage then I needed to. After that I paid very close attention to the trail markings for the race..

So what do you get when you mix water and dirt? YES, "MUD". The rain made the trail into shoe sucking mud at certain spots. Squishing and squashing beneath me was not a fun feeling.

There were some places you could not even run because of the mud. The worst parts were the steep descents and then an accent right afterword's.. I pretty much describe it as a crooked/crazy "V" shape.

So onward I go, trying being cautious so I would not end up tumbling down the hill if I misstepped. But maybe sometimes a little to cautious at times because an
unplanned butt slide took place. Then another steep muddy hill, I started to go down it and told myself, "This is not going to be good". And almost did a face plant in the mud. "THUG, down on all fours".. Only my out-stretched hands saved me from a mud pie in the face.. So after doing yet another butt slide I was mentally getting burned out. Doubting myself in a lot of ways. I felt this was hardest 20 miles I've ever done.. The questions like "why was I out here" came to mind.

But somehow "Never trying to finish" was never an option.

So Loop 3 and 4 here I come. The only goal for the loops was to stay upright. At this point the rain had finally let up and got a little warmer.. The best part was that I was staying upright. WooHoo.. But things started to hurt during this time as well. I was having a shooting ankle pain. Not sure the cause, but it hurt
the most when going down the hills. So I figure I would try to run as best I could. It wasn't pretty, but other things hurted to keep my mind off my ankle.

Wow, loop 5 was upon me. I was almost at the 9:30 to 10 hour mark. One loop to go. Then, I knew I would finish this crazy race. I really could not wait to finally say goodbye to these crazy mud hills.

I just said one thing to get myself to keep me going. I blurted out loud "RUN."
Somehow in a crazy way it worked, my body listened. The pain really didn't
matter anymore because I just needed 10 more miles..

So in the final miles, I crossed one of the two streams that was ankle deep for the last time. Then I knew I was so close.

I emerged from the trees, holding 5 in the air. The race director announcing a 50 mile finisher was coming in. Wow... I had done it. I'm really an "ultra-runner"
now.

Crossing the finish line with a smile on my face, pumping my fist in the air, hugging the race director, and telling him this was a great race..

I have to say this was toughest running race I had done so far, even running a 50k in -20 degree weather was alot easier than this.. It drained me physically and mentally as well. But I accomplished what I wanted to do and my 1st "A" race is now done..

Not sure how I placed, for me it really does not matter. Like Iron-man, whether you finish 500Th or 1500Th overall you are still an Iron-Man. But I know one blogger finished at 11 hours 24 minutes and finished 16Th overall (113 registered). So maybe I didn't to bad with my 12:21 time.

So I guess "Ultra Iron Bubba" does not sound to bad after all.

So what's next.. Oh yeah, there is more.. Right now I'm pretty wiped out.. I have to ramp up my Iron-Man training like it was yesterday and ICE Age Trail 50 is still on the racing schedule as a "?" race. ICE AGE 50 for me was never if I will do it. It was a matter if I will do a 50k or another 50 miler as a "B" race.. That I will decide in a week or two. Right now I'm taking a week off from running and trying to do some repairs on this 40yr old body of mine.

As they say "pain is temporary, regret last forever". Each day the pain is less and I have no regrets during my race because I did the best I could do out there. For now that is good enough, because next year Mr. McNaughton Trails I will be back for you, and will embrace your path instead or cursing it.

2007-04-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

A Tough Day

I guess when the UltraRunning magazine describes it as a "tough race," I think they know what they are talking about.

So it being a tough course did not disappoint.

I will post a race report later on. But for now, I won't talk about the steep accents and downhills. The rain, mud running, and why my knees are covered in mud.

I'll just say I Finished.

Goals for the

1) Go sub 12:00 hours

2) Stand upright the whole way.

3) Finish

4) Try to finish before sundown

Let's say 2 out of 4 isn't bad.

Finishing time 12 hours and 21 minutes.

Was I first, I don't think so, was I last, not really either.

Finishing was the most important thing this day and holding that Finishers Ultra Buckle in my hand. Did I have fun, I guess in a sick demented way. Was worth it, most certainly so..

So for now, while I chow down on some Taco Bell supreme tacos. I'll think about the 100, 150, and maybe some 50 mile runners out there still on course. Running in the dark with just a flashlight and headlamp to guide there way..

May they have a safe and warm night.

2007-04-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

"The Final Week"

It all started with an idea to run 50 miles...

A plan from runner's world magazine I used as a guide...

A belief I could finish the race.

So the time has come..

Week 16 of 16 is upon me in my training plan.. Seemed like a long way to get to this point from where I started. But here I finally am..

Nervous? Maybe so!!

Some little injuries? Hopefully icing will fix right up..

Confident? Hell Yeah!!

Start time: 6:00am Saturday April 14, rain or shine baby, I'm towing the line..

5 loops for me, 10 for the 100 milers, 15 for the 150 mile crazy crew..

Race plan: start slowly, stay upright the rest of the way, and try to "Run like Hell" when I see the finish line.

Race goal: To become an Ultra-Runner!!! end of story!!!

So like the 12 days of Christmas, I devised my own 12 days or really 12 hour wintry song. Since it is still winter in some parts of the US.

Why not..

So sing along if you can..

OH, for the 12 hours of running, I plan to bring with thee:

Twelve pieces of clothing

Eleven Accel gels

Ten packets of cliff Blok

Nine salt tablets

Eight packets of Vaseline

Seven Elmo Bandages

Six pairs of black socks

Five curse words (okay more than that while I'm out there)

Four water bottles

Three flashlights

Two pairs of trail shoes

Annnd

One baa-ad "No Fear" attitude...Fa, La, La, La, La

So thanks fellow bloggers, for being my virtual support crew, I will think of you all out there, and I will try to take alot of pics, and will shoot off a signal flair when I'm done.

Because McNaughton Trail Ultra here I come..

And yes, this is only the beginning, not the end of my UltraRunning journey..