FTMM - 28 October

Well welcome back to Monday!  With a beautiful weekend that I had, I'd figure that I'd be in a chipper mood, but alas, I am not.  Saturday spend 5 hours working on the Moon Lake Mountain Bike trails, which was fun, but a great way to get ooohhh sooo sore!  Add on the fact that after I finished up, I went back to pre-ride the section that we bench cut, and ended up crashing out, so big ouch!  it wasn't too bad, just added to my soreness!

Then Sunday I finally got to race a mountain bike race, and it was a blast...up until my back tire went completely flat!  I made it 3.8 miles into a 6-7 mile loop before I DNF'd, but noticed that my rear tire was going flat about a mile into it.  I was having a great time and was catching the two guys in front of me (everyone started at 2 minute intervals) until riding got very hard and a little dangerous.  But it was great fun bombing the corners and jumping over logs and hills, it made me feel like a kid again.  But after DNFing, I was kinda pissed off, since I was riding well and having a good time.  When I got home, I ended up pulling a bunch of thorns from both front and back tires, and resulted in a tire with the consistency of Swiss cheese.  Guess my tires are a little old!  But other than that, it wasn't too bad, just nice and sore today!

My stats for this last week:

SWIM: Nada, again.  Going to start in mid-November when I find out if I have to move to Texas or not
BIKE: 17 Miles (out of 27 planned)  Not bad, but wasted Sunday and that 70* Sunny weather!
RUN: 14 Miles (out of 37 planned) Taking too much time off, but legs are feeling better, so should still hit my 100 mile month goal

Plan for next week:

SWIM: 0
BIKE: 0
RUN: 38 (but will be happy with 30-ish)

I'll be planning next year out this week, so I'll get a post in with my tentative race schedule and goals for 2014.  Hope you all have a good week!

K-State Homecoming 5K Race Report

Well since the tri season is over, so as the fall colors are starting to come out, that means road racing season!  I decided to jump in a small little gathering at K-State's campus this last Sunday.  In all, there were about 800 runners/walkers/drunk frat boys in costume on a nice sunny fall day.  This was on the campus of Kansas State and is a USATF certified course, so I plunked down my $25 dollars (for day-of registration) and it was going to a great cause, the Manhattan Veteran's Center.

I got to the Memorial stadium early to register, and warmed up a bit with a little running to the point I decided to get rid of the long sleeves and run in just my nice red Oakley singlet.  After about a mile and a half of warming up, I made my way back to the line area, just in time for some of the frat boys to "fake start" a few times with a whistle, which got old after about...once.  But the race director got up front and had a starter gun, and as luck would have it, I lined up right behind the eventual winners, both men and women.  After a few minutes, the gun went off and we were off.  As expected all the drunks took off at the front and made it to the first corner and started to walk.  So the other 750 people behind them had to dodge all kinds of cartoon characters. Fun times, fun times indeed.

The first mile clicked off fairly fast as I keep it steady and passed the few folks that went out too fast for their ability and trickled backwards.  The race took us down a street and then thru a dorm quad area, then back on to the road, which was kind of fun.  This would be the theme as we wound our way thru campus.  First mile: 6:04

The second mile doubled back and headed a bit down hill.  Just before the first mile I was passed by a guy running barefoot.  Not wearing that faddish, "five finger" shoes, actually barefoot!  I was not going to be beat by bare feet!  I chased him for quite a while.  I hit the second mile at 6:25.

I finally caught barefoot guy as he bent over to loose his breakfast, but as I came up on him I asked if he was good and he said "I'm fine" so I motored on.  I figured I better hurry up as my goal of a sub-20 might come and go, so I hit the downhill to the stadium and turned in a 6:34 mile.

The last .2 I cruised in to the stadium and saw 19:4X on the clock and sprinted the last 50 yards to mid field and across the line in a 19:54.  Well, mission accomplished!  After the run, I hung out with some of the Manhattan Tri Club folks, and I ended up getting 3rd place in the non-student division, and netted a $25 buck payday!  Whooot!  Don't tell the IRS! LOL.  But honestly, I was just looking for a nice medal, but still that is not too bad.  The majority of the Manhattan Tri Club did well here, so not too bad.  Overall, I had a good time, raced well and set a post-college PR for 5K, so all in all, it was good.  The race was well organized and well run, so can't complain.

Overall, if I am here next year, I'd run this race again, minus the frat boys of course!

First Thing Monday Morning (FTMM) - 21 October

Nothing like a little time off to heal ya up!  I ended up taking more than a few days off (and about half my mileage) and I feel better.  The downside, my calorie killing was not it's finest, so put on a few pounds (which I will proceed to kill off here shortly!).  But not too bad of a week overall, I will have a race report out for the 5K I ran this weekend (good times and made some money), so all in all, not too bad!

Well we ended up with our first day of snow in Kansas this last Friday, which was very odd since Thursday was nice and in the 60s and Saturday and Sunday was nice and sunny and 60s to 70s, so I would call it a blip on the radar, but could be a sign of doom to come!  In addition to working my core more than nothing, I am thinking of getting a ball for a chair, if possible.  That could be fun, but until then, I'm the guy on the right (no, not really, I like my nice chair at work!).

14-20 Oct 2013
SWIM: 0 yards! (Fail-osaurus Rex!)
BIKE: 0 Miles (I took EVERYTHING easy this week!)
RUN: 15.6 Miles (Two runs, plus a race, so meh, so so week)

My week ahead
21 - 27 Oct 2013
SWIM: 3600 yards (Need to get my motivation on!)
BIKE: 47 Miles (Including a mountain bike trail race!)
RUN: 36.5 Miles (Ramping back up the miles)

And to make matters worse (better?), I am cutting out my chocolate (this time for reals, playas!), so I might be a little grumpy the next few weeks, but despite my results from this weekend's race, still want to cut more weight and keep it in the 160's comfortably, and that will help!

If I get a little more time, I'll crank out the race report (minus pictures, unless I get lucky) here shortly.  Until then, take care everyone, and if you have a burning question, leave me a comment and I'll try to answer it up!

 

First Thing Monday Morning - Tuesday Edition (15 October)

Nah, not late, just taking the holiday off!  At least the majority of the weekend here was nice, Monday was wind, followed by rain, followed by wind and ran, and rinse, wash, repeat!  So luckily it was an off day for me, so sat around, watched some HGTV and listened to the wind howl.  And of course, foam rolled.  Love that thing for getting at those sore muscles!  Good stuff!

Here's how my week went:

7 - 13 Oct 2013
SWIM: 0 yards! (The streak continues!)
BIKE: 20 Miles (I broke down and rode in the cold, brrr!)
RUN: 33 Miles (Legs still feeling great, or I've lost feeling in my legs, either way, good stuff!)

My week ahead
14 - 20 Oct 2013
SWIM: 3600 yards
BIKE: 40 Miles
RUN: 33 Miles
And the K-State Homecoming 5K Race (going to gun for sub 20)

Weather here should be mild (mid to low 60's) all week, so primo running weather.  So looking forward to this week!

Also met up with the Manhattan Triathlon Club on Saturday and we did the first club workout, a nice 20 mile ride and 5 mile run with a few hills in it, so that was fun, and looking forward to that next week too, just not the 6 am wake up for 7 am start.  Ugg too early on a Saturday!

And oh yeah, government is still broke, with leaves me with this...

See you next week!

First Thing Monday Morning - 7 October 2013

"Wow, the weather here is a bit brisk"

Well, the first thing Monday morning, is that it's my mother's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  Other than that, we are in a serious cold funk right now (well it feels really cold, but only in the 50's / 60's), with chilly temps this weekend, made for me bailing on my planned bike rides!  That kinda sucked!  But I did get some good runs in and took a few rest days (which are a good thing) and ran well, so you know, I kinda got that going for me!

I really don't like doing the treadmill thing, because, well, it's boring!  But soon, I'll be hitting the pool a bit more frequent than I am now!

On to my stats:

30 Sep - 6 Oct 2013
SWIM: 0 yards! (The streak continues!)
BIKE: 0 Miles (I am weak and afraid of the cold on a bike!)
RUN: 27.8 Miles (Feeling good, ran 5 times this week)

My week ahead
30 Sep - 6 Oct 2013
SWIM: 0 yards
BIKE: 76 Miles
RUN: 33 Miles

I have found that with me going longer and taking a day off (or three this week), my legs are feeling tons better, and coupled with foam rolling (LOVE THAT STUFF) and wearing compression, my legs are feeling good!

Well, I am still looking for races this fall and next year, so when I have a good idea, I'll write a post about my future races (which ALWAYS change!).  Until then, take care everyone!