Lets get it (re)started in here...

So, clearly I've let this blog languish for, well, about 5 years now, and a lot has happened in that time. I finished 2 half-iron distance races, then tackled Ironman Wisconsin in 2011, with a successful completion in 13:56:07. After that, I finished grad school, got my PhD, found a teaching position, and moved from Madison, WI to Terre Haute, IN. Oh, and I also met the love of my life and got married. Now that I'm starting my 4th year at one of the best undergraduate engineering schools in the country, I'm feeling like I have a little (and I mean a little) bit of free time to once again tackle Ironman Wisconsin. That's the very short version, and hopefully the next post won't take so long to get around to!

the answer my friend...

is blowin' in the wind...yeah, it was yet ANOTHER windy day here in Madison, WI. K and I went for a quick bike ride (I had to get home to meet a potential roommate for the next lease year). K and I started from the Arb bridge and biked out for a little over 30 minutes -- all of it directly into a nasty headwind. At the intersection of PD & Seminole Hwy, there's a fountain across the road (approximately 120 feet away) and we were feeling the spray while waiting at the traffic signal. Total time out: 42 minutes (front door to turn around) - top speed: 22 mph (on a downhill)
Total time back: 35 minutes (turn around to front door) - top speed: 32 mph (on a slight downhill).

sun is shinin' in the sky, there ain't a cloud in sight...

Mr. Blue Sky is living here today...

Woke up this morning to find out that the weather would be nearly perfect for the Lake Monona 20km run (that's just one little lap around Lake Monona). Got picked up at 8am by K along with her BF and one of her roommates (took my commuter bike along since K was in her cousin's wedding and had to flee the race site as soon as she finished!!!). The run started on time with over 900 runners toeing the line. The first half was into the wind (only 10 mph at the time), and once the course turned northeast along the north shore of Lake Monona it got really warm. The wind was completely from behind (so the tailwind was nice), but there were NO cooling effects at all. Between that and the beautiful sunshine beating down, it got a little tough to hold pace (training more would probably also helped). I managed to hold on, walked the water/gatorade stops, and finished in 1:38:26 (a 7:56 pace). I'm happy with it, since it's a good check of fitness for the Madison 1/2 Marathon in 4 weeks, but hopefully I'll be able to get a little faster before then.

Tomorrow will start with helping out at the UW Triathlon Class's class race. I believe I'll be out at the bike turnaround calling out splits and making sure no one cheats!

...running into the sun, but I'm running behind...

After the complete and total fatigue of trivia weekend has only started to pass, I managed to drag myself off the couch (quite comfy by the way), and get in a nice, easy 5 mile run on Tuesday. Clocked in at 40 minutes, but was really more of a 7 min/mi effort broken up by walking breaks (it all adds up the same in the end, but feels quite different, ultimately).

The rest of this week shaped up as follows:
- Wednesday: nothing - had to proctor an exam.
- Thursday: short 2.2 mile run just to keep active.
- Friday: 800m swim to start the day (and test out my new H2O Audio - works awesome, by the way - I highly recommend it), and another 2.2 mile run.
- Today: Ran the 0.75 miles up to the Capitol building to meet my cousin who was running the Crazylegs Classic (8km). I then ran most of the course with him at a nice and easy 9 min/mi pace, and finished up by running the 2.75 miles home for a total of 8.5 miles for the morning.

I'm feeling pretty much set for the Lake Monona 20k next Saturday, guess I should put some effort into my dissertation proposal!

let the good times roll...

10th Place!!!

This past weekend was the "guilty pleasure" of a 54-hour marathon trivia contest. Between 8am Friday and 3am Monday I got about 7 hours of actual sleep, and in between (to make a long story short) we managed to amass 7355 points, a 10th place finish, and a trophy! It was Freshly Squeezed's first top-10 finish in the Stevens Point contest ever, and we were the only "new" team in the top 10 (everyone else was already adding to their trophy shelf). The phone call at 12:30am inviting us down to the station for the awards ceremony made the last year's preparations well worth it. I'm almost caught up on sleep already, which is good since I have a 20km run next weekend to prep for and then the Madison half-marathon a few weeks later.

While this is the second top-10 trivia finish this year for us (we took 6th assisting the Voodoo Dolls in the St. Cloud State KVSC trivia contest in February), this is the most meaningful of them. Now we just have to keep it up, fix our mistakes (we finished approximately 4000 points behind 1st place), and try to get back into the top 10 next year!

A little picture of our trophy and the team "quote book" where funny things said during the contest get recorded (or at least things that seemed funny at the time). The invitation to the awards ceremony is written in there as well.

"We have a little get together each year down at the station - by invitation only...and we'd like Freshly Squeezed to be there!"

...who's reaching out to capture a moment...

Yeah, everyone knew it was windy outside here today. That didn't stop K and I from tackling most of the Capitol View Olympic Tri bike course, and added on a few extra steep hills (uphill into the wind, of course). This was the second half of today's brick workout: 3 mile run, 30 mile bike. The tailwind sections were quite fun on my trusty tri bike.


Yesterday was about 1400 yards swimming - the pool was changed back from long course to short course temporarily...long course should return next week. Getting to push off every 25 yards is a bit too easy when I can glide the first 5+ yards of each length.

Tomorrow is the start to a "rest weekend". Actually its my annual guilty pleasure. A 54-hour marathon trivia contest up in Stevens Point, WI. I'll probably only sleep 6-7 hours between noon Friday and 1am Monday...all in the name of fun!

...It's my birthday too, yeah...

Celebrated my 33rd birthday yesterday with a nice 2+ hour ride with K (she's training for IM WI this year) where it seemed like every significant uphill stretch was into the teeth of a 15-20 mph east wind. The downhill stretches were almost all with that as a tailwind, so that part was fun, at least.

Last week, I managed to overdo a set of swim workouts, with 45 push ups, followed immediately by a mile straight (in the evening) and turned around the next morning to do another 1200m (mix of swim, kick, pull stuff). Gotta say that 100m straight kicking in a 50m pool is really really boring. To combat that boredom, I went for it and bought the H2O Audio Interval 3G and an iPod Shuffle. We'll see if that is all it's cracked up to be.


I'm officially in for all the races on my calendar now (there was a hold up in processing due to the discounts offered to the UW-Madison triathlon club), so I suppose I should figure out what I'm in for with the Chisago Lakes 1/2 Iron. Anyone know anything about the course or the lake?