Hello There!

Ouch
Well i have been busy getting myself injured again! At the end of January i managed to take a spill and twist my knee with a very loud popping noise.
I was rollerblading at the roller rink with my daughters this time. I could only just walk and i hurried off with the look of shame on me. As usual i was pushing myself faster than i should really go.
After 2 weeks it was not feeling any better so i went to the amazing Sports doctor i have found. She felt around my knee and took some xrays and i have something called a torn MCL.
So no running, boot camp or cycling for a while! Well since then i have got to 75% better and have done about 3 runs of 2 miles. I have to go really slow, 12min miles or 5.0mph on the treadmill of i get too much pain. I have no clue how this will effect what i will be doing this year but i will let you know.

Citizenship
My 10 year old green card is up for renewal this year. The cost? approx $500. So instead i decided to become an American Citizen! I will still hold my British citizenship as well. It cost $680 to apply and get my citizenship. I have to take a Civics test which involves 100 questions of which they will ask me 10 and i have to get 6 correct. Because of the cost this year i have had to scale back some of the events i normally do.
I will be doing some part time work again for the company here that puts on some of the Triathlons so i can get some free entries. I have submitted all the paper work and money and now i have to wait for my interview and test date! So i will let you know how that goes. Dual Citizenship.. doesn't that sound Cosmopolitan!


The photo? that is of my cycling team this summer. I am def the slowest of them all but i don't care!

It Christmas and all that

Howdy,

Well the Turkey Trot is done! I didn't take any pictures but i finished in a time of 43mins. It was a 5 mile so not too too shabby. I was concentrating on going slow and not pushing too hard. It was a great run.

Right at about 6 miles my leg likes to give me a little trouble so i have been limiting my runs to that right now.

I have been trying to think about what i want to try and get to next year. I really enjoyed the Green Bay Marathon this year and i think id like to repeat it. We'll see.

I think its important especially if your new at this to list accomplishments every so often so here is a run down for the benefit of new people just starting out.

In 2007 i weighed in at 440LBS + and i was on deaths door. I needed to make a change.

In April 2008 finished my first 5k! This was more of an accomplishment than running a Marathon to me. I used the couch to 5K program to get there.

June 2008 Finished my first Sprint Triathlon!

2009 i my first ever 10k

2010 rode my bike and finished my first 90 mile bike race

2010 First Olympic Triathlon

2010 My first Half Iron man

2011 my first Marathon

2011 learned to Roller skate/Rollerblade so i could spend more time with my kids.

That's just a few so far. I know i need to get that first Full Iron man in the bag soon!

This was not to show off, just to show if your new that you can do it given some time! Also i do read all your blog comments so thanks for posting!

O the picture? Well that is the gun out of an A10 tank buster plane. Amazing how big it is!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Sorry i have been a little MIA for a while but i will give you the run down.

Well the big news was that i completely tore my quad muscle in a my first mountain bike race.

I think this has been coming on for a while. I had been biking to work more than normal and i had a run on the treadmill where i tried to go really fast. Well it had been making a weird twinge in my leg. After about a week it went away. Then 2 weeks later i was warming up for my first ever mountain bike race and i came off.

It was not a big crash, i have been through much worse. I tried to slow down my slamming my left leg down but went over on my right side. My brake broke and i had to walk about 3/4 mile back to my car dragging the bike. My leg hurt at that point but not too bad. Well on the drive home it started to hurt like crazy. Then it blew up like a watermelon under the skin. I mean Huge!!

I showed my wife at home and off to the ER we went. They xrayed it and made me sit around a good bit but said nothing they could do. There was allot of internal blood under the skin but was not a good idea to drain it. They gave me crutches and i went home. (The bill was $1700!!!!) thank gosh for insurance!

I iced and heated it and stayed off it. Well the next day it was felling a little better and i felt foolish for going to the ER. Until...around 7pm i was standing in the bathroom doing my business and BANG massive pain and it blew up again to water Mellon sized proportions!! It was crazy painful too!

The next day i went to the Sports Medicine Orthopedic doctor. She is quite the USA Triathlete too and writes for beginners triathlon.com! She used an Ultra sound and a lot of long words but said i had torn my Quad muscle and i would need Physical Therapy. I could not walk at all on the leg at this point and any weight at all on it was extremely painful.

So began Physical Therapy...

I really thought i wouldn't be able to run or cycle for a long long time again. Over the next 4 weeks i had 2 appointments a week and i was manging to swim a few times a week at least.

Well i did all the exercises they gave and learned much about my body. After just 4 weeks i could run again slowly and i am now just starting to be able to bike again. They said it normally takes 12 but because i am used to body recovering from workouts my body is used to fixing its muscles!

So good news...if you work out a good bit and do get an injury in life you will recover much faster and better than someone that sits on the couch!!

I have a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thursday that is 5 miles but i have to take it slow!! Thanks if you missed me. The Podcast are not possible right now anymore but if you want them back let me know as i will have to invest money in them.

Updates Updates

Hello Friends.
Things are going well and i need to get my blog updated.
Since my trip to England i have got a few things done.

8/7/11 Oshkosh Triathlon (Sprint) 1hr 23m 12s
8/13/11 Carol Rose Wester 5 Mile Trail Run
8/21/11 Race The Lake 90 mile cycle race
8/27/11 Manitowoc YMCA Triathlon (Sprint)

Osh Kosh First

Pre-race routine:

No Food! This is a must in a race for me. No food the morning of. My stomach sucks.
Cleaned my bike the night before. Got my things halfway ready but i should just fully load the car up the night before as i forget things at 3.30 in the morning! I checked off my list and nearly left with out my bike!!
Early in the week i practiced getting in and out of my tri shoes while they were on the pedals.

Event warmup:
Ran a little bit before the swim to get my heart rate up in my wetsuit

Swim:
5th out of 21. Hmm i felt like i was slow. I was out of breathe a good bit but not panicked. I kept close to the buoys and amied for each one insted of the end point. breathing on my right side the whole time. Was shocked about the rocky ground under the water at start. I found i swim faster than i was wading. I actually draghted a bit and for the first time i got around people ok. I think a few times i was not going very straight but every 3rd stroke i looked up to keep me on track. Used my MP3 to keep calm.

What would you do differently?:

I think i need to mentally rehurse a little. I think i should go long and steady strokes instead of short fast ones? It seems so hard to judge my swim performance.

T1
Suit got stuck on my heels a little. I was snapping on Helmet while stepping out of suit. Need to remember to reach down and unhook ankels. Did good with riding on top of shoes and slipping into them when ready. Practice really helped.

What would you do differently?:
Remember to get ankles unhooked.

Bike
The ground was wet and dry in some places. I felt like i may have pushed to hard at the start but i managed to keep it up. I could not have pushed harder.

What would you do differently?:
Weigh less.

T2
4th out of 21, i jumped off the bike from rolling. I did drop my helmet at one point. No socks on the run.

Run
Not bad. Actually faster than i thought it would be.

Event comments:
Pretty good race. On time, plenty of people. Timing chips. Well marked course.

Carol Rose Race:

Well i did this race with my Daughter Megan and my work friends wife who just got through the Couch to 5k program. Because she was extremly nervous about doing it my friend asked me to run with her. I ran at her pace so this race really didnt count much for me on times. It was a fun trail run and it was really nice to have my daughter from Washington State run it with me!

Race The Lake

This is a 90 mile race around Lake Winnerbago. This would be my second year of doing this.

Pre-race routine:


Got up at 2am because i had to be there at 4.30am to do Body marking. It is a nice drive over to Fond Du Lac. Had fun body marking people. Tried to make them laugh and even gave a few a smiley face under their race number. Lots of people came up to me wearing long sleeves and i said 'your going to have to take off your clothes for me' which made them laugh a bit.

Cycle
The first half to the High Cliff park is always nice and flat. You can keep up to 22mph going for a good while. A chipmonk ran out in front of me at one point. There are great support stations. Plenty of food and water. There is a water bottle exchange at the top of High Cliff. After high cliff when you hit the windmills it gets hilly and windy. There are a lot of rollers and between Miles 55-80 is pretty hard for me. After mile 80 you get some good straights and down hills. They probably wouldnt be too bad normally but after 50-60 miles my legs dont have too much in them.
Comments:

Good race again this year. My back snd shoulders suffer the worst on this. I put biofreeze on them at the two rest stops i stopped at which were High Cliff and mile 80. Drank Gatorade so i would not cramp. The 90 miles make me think i am far away from Ironman as there is no way i could run for long after because of back and shoulder pain.

I dont know if i could cut out the 2 rest stops on this race or not at this point. I had intended to take this one really slow but after high cliff i couldnt help racing it.

Saw about 3 bad crashes. One guy and blood all over the place. You have to be careful on this course.
The medals were VERY cool this year!!!!

What would you do differently?:
I have to lose weight for this if i want to go any faster. I need to make a big effort for next year to weigh 200
I got some food. Drove home. Took a 1-2 hour unrestful nap. I went to bed about 10pm and took one of my wives muscle relaxers for her back.Boy it made me CRAZY sleepy. I felt like i couldnt even open my eyes the morning after. Maybe next year book a day off for after the race.

Event comments:

Great Race. Lots of support. You need to be init!


Manitowoc YMCA Triathlon

Managed to grab Third place this year in my group.
Pre-race routine:

Had to Get up at 4am as i was helping with registration. This event is 20mins from my house! I had everything packed up the night before so i was good to go.
Got people Body marked and got to use the Bullhorn was was a huge bonus.
Taped a GU Gel to my frame and filed my water bottle

Event warmup:
Went in the water jogged around a little bit. The water was crazy cold! 57F. Very odd for this time of year.
Swim

2nd out of 6 on the Swim. Kept up front andvery close to the line.It was really cold and for some reason i kept forgetting to kick. I was probably at 95% effort level.

What would you do differently?:

Kick more. The swim is over so quick i dont know if more swim training would help. 4.44 Was the winning swim time in my group. Get my knees higher when running

T1
Winner of T1 in my group. Somehow a bunch of water got stuck in my wetsuit which was weird. Plent of glide on ankles and feet seemd to help alot. The overall winner had a 48 second T1.

What would you do differently?:

Seeing as transistion was not numbered i think keeping my bike on the end of a rack would help here.


Bike

Went as fast as i could really.

1st place 46.04

Second 45.11

Top Winner Joe Yander 40.31


What would you do differently?:
I need to keep losing weight. Maybe practice race pace more.

T2
Got a little stuck behind some in transition. But not to bad.
Was joint first in my group for T2
Winner was 25 seconds. Again Next year remember placement of bike!!!

What would you do differently?:
Get my bike in a better slot. Make sure my ipod does not get stuck in my shoe. Get helmet off while running in.

Run
This is the fastest i have ever run a 5k! I won my group for the run! In the last 1/4 mile i got chicked but i picked it right up and sprinted in to overtake her. I was very happy with this time. Think how much quicker it will be when i lose 40lbs!
This run was awesome.

What would you do differently?:
I am dedicated to losing weight and picking up some speed next year!

When you look back i was fast everywhere. The only thing that made me 3rd was losing about 4-5 mins on the bike. I need to work on this. I think with the weight loss it will help. I need to get out on Thursday but i need to squeak in some Mondays even when i get dropped. I spent time mentally pre paring and i need to do more of this.


The race itself is a good one. About 200 people and i really like you can shower there and relax. This is my home YMCA. The non numbered racking can be an issue and i saw 2 men almost get in a fight over spots. I gave up mine so they wouldnt fight

Back from England

The last two weeks i spent time in England visiting family where i am orginally from. If you didnt already know i moved to the USA at the end of 1997. I had not been home since 2003 and it sure was nice to see Mum and Dad and my brother.

We spent a day in London as my girls wanted to see the sites and see where i grew up. I always like going to my home but i dont think i could live there anymore as it has become so expensive!
We hired a mid size car and just one tank of Petrol (Gas) was $150! and its not like the people there get paid more!

During my trip i managed to run every other day but no bikeing and not much swimming. Which was kind of nice as i need a little break.

We went to many castles as old churchs/Abbeys. When you grow up there you take old buildings for granted but since living in the united states and i now really appreciate churches and castles dating back to the 1100's

Here is a few pictures to show you what i mean:

This is us in front of the Queens Summer house.

This one is a castle from around 1200. This is typical of what you find all over the place in the UK.

This is the inside. The floors are missing but the craftsmanship is amazing.

This is an Abbey we visited. The stonework is awesome.

This is the inside. I got a shot of the people so you can kind of judge the height of the ceiling.

Another shot of the Abbey

This is a shot of us driving over Tower Bridge in London.

I have soo many pictures i wont bore you with them all.

On other news i was so happy to hear Bungus Podcast back on the Air!!!!! Keep em coming.

On the race front i think i have decided to drop out the upcoming Mountain bike race and volunteer for the MS150 bike ride that goes near my home town. I feel it was time to give a little back.

I have some more Triathlons in August and my work friends wife is getting ready to run her first ever 5k. I had coached her though the Couch to 5k Program and she shoulb be ready to run her first ever 5k. So i am going to do that with them.

I did not give up on the mountain bike race completely i am just going to postpone it for now.

Ok one more parting shot

Green Bay Triathlon 2011 Part 2

Ok so now it was Sunday and my turn for the Green Bay Triathlon. It had been kind of a crazy few day leading up to it. My new bike came in on Friday and was the right size. I got my fitting done on it and had only managed to put about 15 miles on it on Sat. I was a little worried about it but everything felt ok.

I was doing the Olmpic Distance which is a 800 yard swim, a 29 mile bike ride and then a 10K. I went with my wetsuit for the swim as it seems to help me go a little faster. Here is a picture before the swim:

Swim:

 I had a weird start. The 3 waves before us they staged them and gave about 5 mins between. Then they moved my wave up to the start and i was getting ready knowing i had 5 mins..and not 10 seconds later they said GO..i was totally off guard. No big deal. Wore my mp3 swim player which keeps me calm. The dolphin divers maybe gained a few seconds on me running/ wading. Some people did it in there cycling shorts and top. I will not bore you with all the times but i came out of there 5th out of 10 in my Division so not too bad. I got my suit off to my waist as i ran to transition and i stepped out of it easy.

T1: Aggghhh SLOW! 3:05
I really need to make improvements here. It was warm so no need for arm warmers or anything.

I need Triathlon bike shoes so i dont have the sock hassle. I put glide on my ankles and that helped my suit come off. I put my team cycling jersey on over my tri suit. I think i should of worn it under my wetsuit.
Helmet on while i step out of my suit would help.
I did put baby powder in my socks but its time to get tri shoes. My next Triathlon my whole goal will be to get this T1 time down. I was 7th out of 10.

Bike:
My new bike was fast. I improved from last year and ended up 5th out of 10. Not much to say really. Would aero bars make me faster? Maybe but not by much. I averaged just over 20mph and there were some good hills.

T2:
faster T2, i am going to need to maybe practice running no socks? scary.

I did race all the way to where i had to get off the bike. sometime in the past ive slowed down too much anticipating the dismount.


Run:
CRAZY!!! I didnt know i could run this fast. I completely went for it. I puked up during the run and just kept going. I had huge strides. I really hurt myself running like this and im not doing it again. Was NOT fun.
I wanted to place but at what cost? I am not going to do this again was way too crazy and much to dangerous for me. Nearly fainted at the end. Awesome mtime but i PAID for it big time

Overall i had a great race and alot of fun. I learned i need to speed up my T1

Green Bay Triathlon 2011

Green Bay Triathlon,

Yes i owe you some reports so i will get you caught up as quickly as possible.

Well to start with my 11yr old Daughter did her first ever Triathlon. For me this was more important than my Triathlon this weekend. She was fantastic! She was a little nervous to start with. I took her up on Sat and she loved having all the attention on her. She kept saying over and over again 'thanks for doing this for me Daddy, i feel so special'.

I spent some time explaining to her that it does not matter if you come last. Most of the kids this was not their first Triathlon so i just wanted her to concentrate on finishing. We got her body marked and all of her things set up in transition. I really tried to make her feel like a superstar. The weather was really nice this day as well which really helped.

Before the race she spent some time splashing in the water to get used to it.

I told her as she gets out of the water things can seem confusing and she might have trouble finding her bike so while she was playing in the water i used the sidewalk chalk i had brought with me to help her:



She really seemed to like this idea. So here she is getting ready for the short swim, i managed to get a shoot of her just as she looked back:

And her she is on the way back in after the swim:

Then she was off to the bike. She had a little trouble getting her socks on and looked a bit worried but i cheered her on and told her everything was normal and OK and she would be fine. OK off to the bike part:

She made it the two laps around the park just great and then she was off to the 1/2 mile run. She was doing great. At one point she said i cant get my breathe but i told her it was normal to be out of breathe. I think she was worried something was wrong but i was glad i was there to keep her calm.
I was a little worried she would quit but no way! she was determined. At points i could tell she was hurting and i wanted to do it for her (typical Dad) but i knew this would help her confidence to get through it.
Here she is on the run and then over the finish line.

She did awesome! She was really pleased with herself. I didn't make her do this event it was something she wanted to do herself. There were a few kids with road bikes and all the gear but i told her just not to worry and she would only be racing herself. I had an awesome day with my Emily and i will not forget it. I hope she remembers it too!

Afterwards i took her over to Panera Bread and got her a tread for breakfast, she wore her medal pretty much the whole time. It just me and her that day and if your a parent thinking about doing this i would recommend it!

Ok next report: My GB Triathlon. But Emilys was way more fun!!!