Midweek

Hello Blog friends!
Hope you had an enjoyable long weekend. Now we are past memorial day everything here in Wisconsin goes crazy for a while. It seems every weekend there is something to do finally.
This weekend i have Green Bay Triathlon on my schedule and my 11 year old daughter is going to try the kids Triathlon.
My kids at first had this theory in their heads that if they are not the best at a sport why do it? It has taken me a little while to get this out of them. I think they are starting to understand that just taking part is where the fun comes from and not winning. After all not everyone can win, it is just not mathematically possible.

I got back some pictures and videos of the Full Marathon i did in May and they look great. Looking back at the event it took me about 4 days to be fully recovered and not do the shuffle every morning.

I will see what i can do about getting some pictures this weekend of the first Triathlon of the year.

New Bike Day...again...maybe

So i had finally got the money together about 2 months ago to buy myself a new Road bike. I have been riding and racing on my entry level Aluminum Marin Porto Fino for just over 3 years now. Now do not get me wrong. For $675 it has been an awesome bike. The only upgrade i ever really did on it was replace the rear wheel with a hand built rear wheel that cost me about $150 because my 230LBS kept breaking the little spokes. It had Shimano Sora on it which work surprisingly well for being so budget minded. I put 3200 miles on it so far with no major problems. I am still going to use it for going back and forth to work and dirty/rainy rides.

I had a budget of about $2200 and started looking. My biggest hitter is wanting a Carbon Fiber frame. Well for this kind of money i found a Kestrel on Bikes Direct with full Ultergra components on it with in my budget! Normally a Carbon frame with Ultegra and good wheels would be about 3000-3500.

I was super worried about not buying a bike from my local bike shop. I felt ashamed not to support them but there is no way i would get that spec for the money i had. So i nervously ordered it knowing i had a full 30days to return it.

Here is how it came:

Looked good so far. I took it out the box and gave it a quick once over. All looked good. Here it is out the box:

I took it to my local bike shop to put it together. That cost me $40 and they did not make me feel bad for not buying one of theirs.
Here is what it looked like made:

It was VERY light and rode extremely fast.
I put about 40 miles on it and i had some trouble changing gears on the rear derailleurs. I just thought it was the cables setting in. It got worse though. On a ride the chain snapped! What the heck. It was an Ultegra Chain and i took it in. They said they had never seen the Ultegra chain snap before! I got new links and go it going. I used a really good mechanic and he could NOT get the rear derailleur in adjustment no matter what he did. He said he would have to pull the handlebar tape off and re run the cable costing me more money. This gave me a very bad feeling about this bike. So i packed it back up and shipped it back for a full refund. They were very good about giving me 100% refund.

So i selected a Specialized bike at my local bike shop that i am meant to pick up today. It is much much less of a bike than this one but i feel more confident about having the local bike shop help me if there is a problem. It is still a Carbon Frame and i am OK with the gear set but the wheels on it are heavy.

We will see how it goes and i will let you know.

--Update...went for the fiiting on my new bike and the 54cm frame was just too small for me. The LBS is going to have to order a 56CM for me. Means i will have to wait another week. Very frustrating but i would rather have it correct. Group ride tonight is going to be on my Marin again.

Green Bay Cellcom Marathon 2011

Yep that me in that photo on the far right of the group.
Back in Novemeber of 2010 right after i did the Turkey Trot, a lady at work i run with sometimes got killed in a car crash. She got completely side swiped by another driver out of the blue at an intersection.
She was meant to do the Half Marathon here in Green Bay yesterday.
Because of this my company decided to put together a team to run it in her honor. I have never done a full Marathon before but have done a few Halfs.
I decided to man up and run this one. Her brother works here at our company also.

I had done my training for this Marathon but only ran about 3 days a week for it. I do not like to run more than that as i get really sick of running fast when i do it this much. I had no idea how i would handle a full Marathon.

I am so lucky that my family said they would support me and meet me on the course wherever i asked them to. Thank YOU! I could not have done it with out them. We live about 50 mins drive from Green Bay so we did not need to spend the night.

So i packed up a large bag with everything i thought i may need and asked them to bring it to the spots i was to meet them at. I meet them about every 4-6 miles which really helped as i knew i only had to focus on seeing them at the next point.

I managed to forget my ipod so i thought i would be running the first 9 miles with no music until i remebered i could use Pandora on my Black Berry...phew!

The weather was dry but extremely windy. 40mph winds were blowing.

 I was trying to enjoy it. I was surpirised to see i started to speed up towards the end. It was all about management. I even sent status on my facebook on my phone during parts of it to keep me going. The crowds were great! they really got me throught the hard parts. I didnt walk any of it which i was also surprised about. With 1/2 mile left i nearly tripped badly but managed somehow to stay upright.


About Mile 23-24 is when i started to hurt and good bit. No cramps or blisters or sores just the top of my feet hurt and good bit. I ran through the pain as i kept telling myself people with cancer have to go through more pain than this.

For my first Marathon i did surprisingly well.


Marathons are not really my thing. It does not seem healthy to be in this much soreness. I cant workout for two-three days either and thats going to bug me. I will stick to half marathons unless it is a special circumstance. This one was for you Amy.

Here is some pace Data my total time was 4hours 48mins

Start 7.08am
Mile 5 56:26 Pace 11.17 8.04am
Mile 10 1:50:23 Pace 11.02 8.58am
Mile 13.1 2:23:06 Pace 10:55 9.31am
Mile 15 2:43:50 Pace 10:55 9.52am
Mile 20 3:37:54 Pace 10:53 10.46am
Finished at 11.56am

Coming up

Ok so somehow my last blog got deleted?

Very weird.

Anyway really quick this Sunday will be my first Marathon in Green Bay!

If you want to get live results my number is 1686

Full report coming

Had enough of winter

This weather has got to end! It is driving me crazy. I can not get outside to run or bike and more snow is expected. I hear all the time about how it is 70 in the south and it is driving me crazy!!

SO whats been going on? Well Marathon training has been coming on ok. I'm not a huge fan of long long distance running and don't normally run more than 3-4 times a week. I been stepping it up to 5-6 runs a week and i think it is hurting me. I am going to go back to not running more than every other day and cycling/swimming on the off days. I been doing the 100 push up challenge again and now i can safely do 60-75 push ups in a row.

I have recently been listening to Jillian Michael's podcast from Itunes which i am really liking. She talks about inside the food industry and about finishing with biggest loser on season 10. I have got some much needed insight on myself from these pod casts.

I finally got my new rear wheel for my road bike. I have been  wanting a new road bike this spring but it is not going to happen. My rear wheel including fitting and adjustments came pretty close to $200 and i put some new grip tape on the handle bars also.

My next race is a Half Marathon on April 16th in Osh Kosh. Then a Duathlon on May 1st.
Still on Weight Watchers plan, however i switched to online only for the spring/summer period.

I have been swimming 1 -2 times per week.

Tomorrow i have a root canal that needs to be done and i am not looking forward to it at all. I am trying very hard to not let it mess up the rest of my week and just deal with it when i am there. I have a tendency to let things like that make me really depressed on the days leading up to it.

Seroogy's 15k Green Bay WI

2.11.11 was the Seroogys 15K in Green Bay hosted by Midwestsportsevents.com
Seroogys is a maker of chocolate here in Green Bay that is truly amazing and truly very very bad for you. You can visit their site at http://www.seroogys.com/

The weather all week had been -25F but it was meant to warm up on Saturday. This year Midwest is using disposal timing chips which actually works out really good because when you pick up your packet the day before you get your timing chip. Pretty much all you have to do on race is find a parking spot, get to the start line and go! I really like this idea. It did not warm up  as much as expected. It was about 20F was was much better than -25F! However the crazy warm temps of 36F did not come until the day after.

My plan was just to drive up park and spend the least amount of time as possible outside before the gun went off. The race to start at 8 and i found a parking spot at 7.45. Waited in my car until 7.55 and then jogged over to the starting line. Because of this plan the only picture i got was the one above on my phone. Last year they had about 1000 races and this year 1500. A good turnout for such a cold run.

I had looked up the winning times for Cydesdales from the previous year and knew if i wanted to place i would have to go at least 8.30 min/miles! That's fast for a 5k for me! I wanted to give it a shoot anyway. I came out the gate fast. I started at the back which was probably a mistake but i secretly love overtaking people that weigh much less than me. I planed to go by the drink stations as i knew it would upset my stomach.

I had no breakfast as i already know from many previous experiences i will get sick if i do. I don't recommend this it just is the only thing that works for me.

At the 2 mile point i was doing good. My Nike Plus on my itouch was saying i was keeping a pace of 8:45min/mile ish so i was doing good. The gloves i had were not warm enough so i pulled my fingers into them and made balls with my fists to warm up. That seemed to work.

Some places on the course were really narrow and i had trouble going around people sometimes. There was still some ice around so i had to be careful.

Well to sum up i kept my pace and finished in 1 hour and 19mins. This was good enough for 3rd place in Cydesdale div! Yes i had placed!!

I had a great time. I kept my strides fairly long and had achy legs the next morning but not too achy.

I had made plans to meet my family in Green Bay for my daughter Emily's birthday lunch and see if i could meet them at a 10am movie. I was cold and sweaty so i had a good idea. I just upgraded my Planet Fitness membership so i can visit any PF in the country for free. I found one in Green Bay that had just opened so i went over there via Blackberry and Garmin and showed there. I made to the move by 10.30am and enjoyed a kids movie with the family!

Next we had lunch at HuHot and headed home after my wife wanted to look at some new cars (yes shes got the bug again) We even looked at Honda Elements which is one of my fav cars right now. I was disappointed to find out they are discontinuing them.

SO...Sunday you could find my daughter and myself down at Rays Indoor mountain bike park again,...(we have season passes now!)  http://raysmtb.com/   What a great weekend i had!

Here is a picture from Rays. You can see the Bananergy we needed.

Two weeks from He##

Sorry it has been quiet. The last two weeks have been CRAZY at work and i buckled a good bit from my decent eating. It started with a week of meeting from Sunday through Friday and then a week of teaching school in the factory from Monday through Friday which just finished today.

Very stressfull but i am glad its over. I have lots of things to report fore you.

My running suffered the first week but i started to get it back on the second week.

I have a RACE tomorrow. Yes i have a 15k to do in Green Bay tomorrow so i will try and get some pictures and make a report on it.

I have been doing alot of indoor mountain bikeing at Rays. I just went ahead and bought a season pass for me and my daughter. I lost a filling, cut my knee and nearly broke my nose but i am getting much better!

I have not weighed myself in the last 3 weeks and i fear it is going to be really bad :( But i am already back on plan to lose more weight.

More sooon my friends...