Awesome Ride Weekend

Welcome to the Great Wide Open!

Well the weather finally got nice enough to go outside and ride for a while, and ride I did!  Saturday I decided to go on and "exploration" ride, just to get out and see what was what in the Fort Riley "Back 40".  Well, what I rally found was a bunch of nothing, which was what I really wanted, nothing but smooth roads and lots of them!  Check!

I headed out north and out the ECP (entry control point) and road a nice roller coaster west to Old 77 Highway, which was a nice two lane blacktop that was generally flat and empty, and turned north and rode on out.  I noticed that I was averaging over 25 mph, and I thought "Wow, I am good", until I realized it was the tailwind and not totally me :(.  But I enjoyed that while I was northbound and even snapped this picture as well as the one above:

Taken at about 22 mph, maybe not the best idea!

I realized how easy it was when I turned and took the wind right into my right side and it literally took the wind out of my sails.  I was a nice ride out there with still nothing to resemble civilization out there as you can see below, so I stopped to take these pictures, grab a swig of water, and check my GPS to make sure I was in fact on the right road (the absence of road signs was the rule out here).

I was watching out for tanks at the tank crossing signs!

I can see for miles and miles!  Wait, is that Nebraska over there? I hear that it's nice.

Had to add a little "Walking Dead"!

Well after this little stop, I ended doing a little bit of climbing and found a real long, steep climb and decided to get out of the big ring, and made it to the top and about hacked up a lung at the top (wow, I'm out of shape!), and I tried to get back to the big rind, but my shifter wouldn't get it back over far enough (guess my cable had stretched too much), so I stopped and hand-jammed it back on the big ring and decided not to drop down to the little ring again, so I motored on.

On the back side of the ranges, I found a couple of descents and they we awesome, despite heading into the wind now, since the wind was blowing at 20-25 from the south southwest, but I still managed a nice tuck heading down.  I ended up getting to an intersection that had fencing and gates on 5 sides.  WTF?  Who does this?  Oh yeah, the Army, go figure.  Well I ended up with two choices, ride back to where the fences began and go around them, or slide thru the gate, which was wide enough for my big butt and then I'd would have had to lift my bike over the gap in the gate.  Guess which one I did?  Well I'm not telling, but that pissed me off to no end!  Here is a picture once I was on the other side of the gate.

Note lack of smile and narrow gap in fence.

Well after that little setback, I continued on until I reached the Ogden ECP, and entered post again and this is where I finally saw traffic, people, buildings since I started out on my ride.  Like I said, I set out to find nothing and accomplished that!

But I ended up with a good deal of sun on my face, a 32 mile ride, which despite starting out the first hour at about 19 mph average, I ended up with an over all 16.75 mph average for 1:53:22 total ride time!  Not too bad!  And I know that there is a freaking fence on one of my routes, so I know not to go that way again, and yes, I wore long sleeves because it was "only" in the mid 60s, but this coming week, it looks like 80s!  Oh yeah!  Going to start working on that biker tan lines here this week!  Well hope you all had a great weekend too!  Keep the rubber side down!

February Exercise Update

Well this about sums up my February!  I didn't swim, I didn't bike and I barely ran, so this is how I feel after my activity "reboot".  Part was because I went back to Michigan for a funeral and then relaxed a little too much, but also was when we got 7 inches of snow in one day, which is more snow that I have seen in about 3 years of living between North Carolina and Kansas.  But at least for March, I am back on track, at least on the run / bike part!

The grand total for running last month was 34 miles.  Yeah, that's it.  I know, I have almost had WEEKS that were better than that.  And no bike and no swim, so not too good.  In contrast, during this first week of March, I have 31 miles biking and 12 running, so I have not just quit, at least yet!  But the weather is getting better and warmer, so my motivation is getting stronger.

Also, I have started a non-sporting blog that is going to document my travels in the coming year, and it can be found at http://horsies-facing-in.blogspot.com/ (it was an older blog that I had, and tried to change the name, but oh well!)

So, I guess it is time to get back to work!

After a little down time...I'm back!

Well, February came and went, didn't get much done running as I went back to Michigan for a death in the family and a day after that, we got 7 inches of snow that partially melted and refroze, so not much on the running side of life.  Aside from wreaking my ankle on a patch of ice (on the far end of a 4 mile out-and-back to boot!), I am back up and running, more or less this month. 

After we got back to Kansas, the temps were in the 60's and higher, so sore ankle and all, I was outside most of the days and even rode a nice 24 miler on the bike.  I do have a few more longer rides scheduled, but with the last 4 days of freaky wind (15-30 with gusts up to 40 mph!, run Toto, run!) I have not risked going out on a ride.  Even running in the wind is killing me.  Ran for over a mile into a headwind on a 4 mile run, and was completely out of it for most of the day, ugggg!

And since I have been on the bike, I am thinking of doing a crit or road race on the bike before I head out at the end of this month for deployment, the only issue is that the races are about an hour and a half away, but we shall see what is what later this month!

So other than the layoff, I am good, gained a little weight at home, but lost it in a week back here, so that is a good thing, so just need to keep it up!

Better start working again!  Later everyone!

Perceptions

It is funny about what we think we look like versus what others think we look like.  Take the following pictures for example:

 What I think I look like at work

What others think I look like at work

But in the end, what are you going to do?  I'm just going to go with picture one, thank you!  But the last few weeks have been busy, at least since the start of February, where I basically have run every third day (but still kept up with good mileage!), but I have to get regular (no, not that type of regular)!

Which is why I am starting a challenge to myself (and anyone who wants to join in too!) to run a half marathon each month.  It doesn't have to be a race, just 13.1 miles or more at any one time.  That should keep things interesting!  So I have my first one in the bag, this month is going to be interesting, with going on vacation, the sub-zero temps and the occasional snow/sleet/fog/ice, but I think I can fit it in somewhere.  I'll keep y'all posted.

Speaking of posted, forgot to post last month's stats, so guess I can shoe-horn them into this post here, since I am mainly scatterbrained about my posts anyway!

Swim - 0 yards; oh the humanity of it all, a goose egg!  I need to hit the pool before I can't swim for a year!

Bike - 43 miles (all indoor); now you want to talk about boring, riding a bike indoors is about the tops of that list.  it's a shame you can't take your brain out and put it on a shelf for an hour or two.

Run - 88 miles; almost broke the 100 mile month barrier, but a few things put the kibosh on that, but I am still over my goal of 50 a month (set the bar low and exceed it!)

Exercise (Situps and Pushups) - 55 minutes; uhhhh, ummm the sun was in my eyes, dog ate my homework, uhh, I suck!  Need to get going on this a bit more, cuz this is just sad!

So as you can see, not the best of months, nor the worse, so just middle of the road.  Guess I need to change my perception of me working out, huh?  Guess I'd better get to work then!

Well, at least it's Friday, so I got that going for me...

This isn't me, but really how I feel!

Well, at least it is Friday.  Work here has been interesting, but working from 7 in the morning until 8 each night, especially when it is dark when i get to work and dark when I get home really makes it hard to get a good run in.  I did get to slip away at lunch on day for a nice 5 miler, but that is about it.  but you know the funny part, I've lost like 4 pounds this week.  It must be all the running up and down stairs this week!  My "office" is supposed to be 4 folks strong, but right now it is just me, which means I am always moving about the building, which I guess isn't a bad thing after all.  Less time in front of a computer = more movin' and groovin'!

But I have a nice couple of runs lined up, a nice 10 miler on Saturday, and I am going to run my first virtual race on Sunday, the "Freeze your Thorns Off 5K".  This is put on by "The Boring Runner" and ought to be fun!  I'll even add in a little two mile cooldown to make it a nice afternoon run.

Well I am off again to roam the building again, looking for my next "stair master" workout!  Hope your Friday is going better than mine!

I'll try to lighten the mood later with some funny photos, or something!

Topeka to Auburn Half Marathon Race Report

"I believe I can fly!"



SOOOO, do these tights make me look cold?  Hell, yeah!  Wow, you want to talk about some cold weather, I woke up on race morning and saw that it was only 8 degrees out!  Ouch, this race was so much a better idea last month!  But undaunted, I jumped in the shower and headed out to Topeka for my first ever Half Marathon!  Yup, I joined the 13.1 (+) club!  More on that a bit later!

Well, I headed out to Topeka to pick up my packet, so I got there in about an hour and it had warmed up (!) to 16!  Awesome!  Well, since I was at the start line, I had to drive and park at the finish line, the town of Auburn and then ride a bus back to the start line.  Oh well, at least when I got there, I didn't get blocked in or anything.

After hoping off the bus I naturally went inside (it was still cold, go figure) and stretched and went to pee about 4 times.  Guess I was hydrated for the run!  As I was warming up, I heard a little bit about the course, hills up front for the first half, then not too bad after "Urish" Hill, named for the street.  They briefed us that the photos were going to be at the top of this hella hill (and I used to run the heck out of hills in high school too), so I was somewhat forewarned for it.  Well the best part was for this race was that I was going to PR in it!  That is almost like saying that I am the best writer in the history of this blog, a very small sample size to chose from!

Well all 500+ of us lined up (this was the largest running of this race in it's 30 years), we counted it off and off we went.  I ran for a bit with another Soldier from Ft Riley, Ricky, which was funny since we were standing next to each other at the start line, all 5'4" of me and all 6'6" or so of him, love the contrast!  Well even with a generally downhill first mile, I managed to crank a 6:46 for the first mile.  Uhhhh, I wonder if I remembered that I still have 12 more to go!  I pulled it back the next mile, for a 7:16 and that is when the hills started, a little at first and then as we hit a few subdivisions, steeper and longer.  Ugg, mile 3 came and went in 7:42, as my body was getting the hint that this WAS NOT a 5K!  More hills and the first water point was at the 3.8 mile point and of course I selected the girl who just gave away her last cup of whatever just before I got there, so no soup for me!  Glad I was carrying my fuel belt with some HEED/Water/Mio mix, so I would endure.

"Hang loose, brah!"

The next few miles were up and down, both figuratively and literally with the real fun capped at the Urish Hill, a long, steady climb to one plateau and then a slight break then more hill to the "half way" mark and the photog!  He even wrote “smile” on the side of the hill so you remembered, but as you can see from my picture, I just was able to throw a Shaka and keep going.  The good part was the hills got less pronounced, but I still had 6 and some change miles left.  But after those major hills, the miles seemed to click off and despite running without headphones, I had a single song stuck on “repeat” in my head, so that was fun and all.  At the 8 mile mark, we went “off road” onto the dirt road part of the course.  The dirt road wasn’t too bad, not much loose gravel, just some nice rollers.  Which is at about the 9 mile area, I stopped and walked for about 30 seconds, and once I got running again, I really picked up the pace.  It was like my legs were replaced and fresh ones put on, because my pace per mile dropped back into the low 8:00 mile pace with a few around 7:45!  Nice, might have to do that more often, not!  I felt bummed that I stopped running, but it helped me overall, so it wasn’t so bad to walk and get my mind and body refreshed! 

At around the 12 mile mark, I notice that I might just hit my goal of 1:45 for the half, so I really started to run hard.  I knew I wasn’t going to podium and I was praying just to be in the top 150 runners, so I was really racing the clock now.  I started to power up the hills and glide down them, and after I round the final turn, I found that I still had a ways to go, like almost a half a mile!  Well that last .4 miles really was not fun, because I was starting to feel the rumbling in my tummy, and we all know what that means, so I had to balance on that thin line between red-lining and blowing chunks and slowing down too much, but keeping my lunch.

Well, I kept my lunch and ran fast, finishing in 1:46:33, just a little off my goal, despite having run .3 farther than regulation.  But I guess the finish line was moved because it used to finish in front of a church, but the church had a function, so it was best to move the finish line.  But overall I finished 15^th in my age group (tough crowd, 2^nd overall was in my AG!) and 123^rd overall.  So, not bad.  I realized that I was not passed by any one person the entire race, it was always a group who were working together, so I guess from now on, I will try to latch on to a group and roll with them.

So overall, I loved the run, minus the cold, cold weather (started the run at 20 degrees and barely got above 31 all day!) and the hills, which I will watch out for next time, I really enjoyed my first half-marathon!  The next logical step is the full 26.2 miles-o-pain!  But that will come next year, after I get back from deployment!

Talk to you guys later!

TPS Reports and other things

So who else's job feels like mine?  Just checking!  It's been a rough week here, but oh well, what ya gonna do?  Go run! Yea!

Well this week started out awesome, with a 4 day weekend and a buncha running, almost too much.  I ran 7.75 on Saturday and turned around and ran 12.1 on Sunday.  Oops!  And did I mention that it was 67 degrees on Sunday?  Double oops!  But the 12 miler was going to be a 13 miler, but my getting dizzy running up one of the steeper hills made me reconsider.  Well that, and the massive salt streaks down my face, yeah I was cooked, but almost 20 miles on a weekend isn't too bad to start off with.

Well my first half marathon is in 2 days, so I think I'll be ready.  I know I can make the run, the big question is; how fast?  Given that I have heard the course is hilly and a bit difficult, as well as the projected high temp keeps falling (started out near the mid- 50s and now in the upper 30s), I still think I can hammer out a 1:45 half.  Either that, or die trying!  I don't think the weather will hurt me, as I've been running this entire week outside (remember those 60s on the weekend?) since it has been in the 20s to 30s and windy, I seem to run better in the cold lately.

Well, hope everyone has had a good first half-month of this year, it looks promising so far!

2012 Race Schedule

Well, I know I published my sidebar schedule a while back, but here is the expanded, up to date schedule for 2012 (subject to change without further notice, void where prohibited):

As I stated last post, I am pulling the trigger on a half-marathon, so on 21 January, I will participate in the 30th Topeka to Auburn Half-Marathon in Topeka, KS.  This is an interesting one as it is a point-to-point race starting in Topeka and ending, yup, you guessed it, Auburn.  I really like the 11am start time, and I quote from their website "to better take advantage of the warmest part of the day".  That is because it is averaging about 25 degrees in mid-to-late January, so yeah, warmest part of the day!  But again, I'm going to PR this bad boy (moot point, I know since it's my first, but eh, who cares!)

Next up is the Spring Fling Criterium Series from 25 of February until 24th of March on every Saturday in Lawrence, KS.  I am not sure if this will actually happen, as nothing has been published, but I'd like to do a few, despite the long drive to get there.  I'd like to see how I stack up against my roadie brethern as I've only done a few crits, and those were back a few years.  If you've never seen a crit, it is like European F1 car racing but on bikes.  This is WAY too much fun!  Even though I crashed (or was crashed in my case) in my second crit, I still love these to death.  And a great way to check your fitness level or hack out a lung!

Another race that isn't published yet is the Fancy Creek Trail Race, a nice 5 mile trail race near Manhattan, KS.  I am branching out in the races I am doing, and given the short race season I have, I am in the "not too choosy" section, and this one fit.  I just hope it goes off, since it sounds like fun and it's close to home.

This one I know is on like donkey kong, it's the St Patty's Day 10K in Manhattan, KS on the 19th of March, where you run from Aggieville, thru the K-State campus and back again.  This will be another fun one, especially since it's a 10K, and I'm looking to drop my 10K PR a bit this year before I head out.

And this is probably the last race before I deploy, the God's Country Off-Road Duathlon, held in Lawrence, KS on the 25th of March.  I have never done a "Du" and an off road on sounds fun, except I have a 3 ton mountain bike, so that might slow me down a bit.  But in the past, the format was a 2 mile trail run and an 11 mile MTB ride.  Sounds like bike fun!

So that is my entire season, three whopping months!  Of course I would have a lot more races (sometimes up to three a month) but not this year.  I am planning on doing whatever races they have in Afghanistan and running the Army Ten Miler-satellite race, so that will be fun in October!

So if anyone has any races that I missed and think I should try before I leave in April, let me know and I might just show up on race day!

Take care all!

Now I've gone and done it...

Well, I've done it now, I officially signed up for the 30th Topeka to Auburn Half-Marathon, so I guess no excuses now! LOL.  This will mark my farthest race (13.1 miles) since last fall's Army Ten Miler.  So how did I celebrate?  I went out and ran 10 miles last night.  Poorly.

I have to make sure I remember to start my runs early enough so that I can run the entire time in daylight, but of course I just couldn't do that.  I even ran with sunglasses!  What a bone head!  But after the first 4 miles, I was ready to pack it in and head back to the house, but for some reason, I just kept on rolling.  The fun part of the loop that I laid out is that there are a few "drop out" points, so if I was ready to wuss out, I could, but it really helped my mental toughness and I hung in there on the run.

I ended up finishing the run in 1:26 and change, which was just 8 minutes off my Army Ten Miler PR!  Kinda funny.

Well I am officially over the combo head / chest cold and feel great.  I gotta give mad props to Airborne, the fizzy tabs that you drink to boost your vitamin C, those things work great!  Wow.  So even with two days off from running, I finished with a good run week of about 27 miles or so, so not too bad.  Below is how I "stacked up" and what I have to look forward to this next week:

		2-Jan	3-Jan	4-Jan	5-Jan	6-Jan	7-Jan	8-Jan	Totals
		Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
SWIM	Dist.								0.0	27.6
	Time								0:00:00
BIKE	Dist.								0.0
	Time								0:00:00	3:47:40
RUN	Dist.	8.0		5.3			4.1	10.2	27.6
	Time	1:05:47		0:43:05			0:32:10	1:26:38	3:47:40
S / R	Time								0:00:00

The red blocks are "missed" workouts, so I gotta get better on those for this week:

		9-Jan	10-Jan	11-Jan	12-Jan	13-Jan	14-Jan	15-Jan	Totals
		Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
SWIM	Dist.	1.0		1.0		1.0			3.0	70.8
	Time	1:00:00		1:00:00		1:00:00			3:00:00
BIKE	Dist.		12.0	12.0	12.0				36.0
	Time		0:35:00	0:35:00	0:35:00				1:45:00	9:23:00
RUN	Dist.		5.3		5.3	4.1	13.0	4.1	31.8
	Time		0:45:00		0:45:00	0:34:00	2:00:00	0:34:00	4:38:00
S / R	Time								0:00:00

I am going to jump back into the biking training, too bad it is all indoors on the trainer, and hitting the pool for an hour of swimming on MWF, and knocking out a "test" run on Saturday.  Going to really ramp up my training to 9 1/2 hours this week.

A little bit later today, I will post my "race" schedule for this year, which is only going to be from Jan to Mar because of this little deployment thing, but I think I will be able to punish my body well enough in such a short amount of time!

Ok, time to get back to work...

Being Sick Sucks!

 
Well my good start to the new year is dashed a bit with a nice head cold that decided to move to my chest and restrict my breathing (feels like one lung only!)  But it has let me catch up on my reading.

Just finished "Iron War" and it was good, I liked that is told the stories and didn't just leave it there.  It also had some more technical chapters but they weren't too bad.  So overall, I really liked it.  I just started "I'm here to Win" by Chris "Macca" McCormack and it is good too so far.

But really I just want to get out and run since it has been really nice here lately, but I will hold off until tomorrow and get out there and hit a nice 8 mile run or so!

See you guys on the roads!

Happy New Year and 2012 goals / resolutions

Well I made it into the New Year (albeit with a nasty head cold!), but as always, the training continues!  Seems the head cold wrecked my New Year's Day run idea (that, and driving back from OKC), but I set the bar high for the year as far as longest training runs with a nice 8 mile hilly run on the 2nd.  So not too bad to start the year.

I hope that everyone had a great holiday season!  I guess I will share my New Year's Goals, in a hope to stimulate your own goals.  I have found that in writing them down, or even posting them on the Internet, makes you more likely to stick with them.  So here we go...

1)  No more chocolate candy.  This doesn't necessarily mean no more chocolate, but food items that are primarily chocolate are out.  Kinda to keep the weight down.  Yeah, this is going to suck.

2)  No more sugary sodas / drinks.  This means cokes, pepsis, red bulls, etc, again, to help keep the weight down and get rid of the "empty" calories.  Again, this is going to suck.

3)  Run at least 600 miles this year.  This isn't too much of a stretch since I ran 632 last year (2011), but with a deployment pending, I will have some lean months, but I think it is really do-able!

4)  Bike at least 2000 miles.  This one will be REALLY hard, since it will still be cold as butt when we deploy, and almost all the miles will be trainer / exercise bike, so this will be the real mental challenge.

5)  Swim at least 10 miles.  This will be hard also, since there are NO POOLS there!  So all of this will have to be done before I leave.  Yikes!  Looks like three times a week!

6)  Run a half marathon.  I have planned on the 21st of January to run the Topeka to Auburn Half, so with a little luck in timing, this will be done shortly.

7)  Do 500 sit ups a week.  This is just going to be less than 100 a night with two days off, so this can be done, it's just making it a routine and sticking with it.

I may add a few more here, but the end state is to lose some weight and get at a more manageable racing weight for the 2013 season when I get back.  With my plan for 2013, I am looking at at least two 70.3 races (Kansas and Branson) and perhaps a full 140.6 race (Louisville).  But giving these goals, this will help towards those long term goals.  I will update my goals during the year so as I complete them, I can check them off!

So get out there and write down your goals and go get after them!  Later everyone!