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!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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!"
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!"
Thursday, April 15, 2010
...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!
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!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
...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?
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?
Monday, April 5, 2010
where to find my happy...
Or, why am I planning to do Ironman Wisconsin in 2011?
I started running about 6 years ago after a realization that while I would never end up at 400+ pounds like a former coworker, my weight had been creeping upwards to nearly 240 pounds. When I started running, I could only make it about halfway around the block my apartment was part of (granted the full route around from front door to front door was 0.8 miles). That was a far cry from my senior year of high school when I managed a sub-six minute mile for the first time. I made the decision to get in shape, lose the weight, and I haven't looked back. I went from a couch potato to a running a sub-two hour half-marathon in one year. A few months later, I went back to school to start what ultimately has become a JD-PhD combination. I had dropped more than 60 pounds. I ran my first marathon a year later, followed a few months later by my second half-marathon and second marathon. In that same year I started competing in duathlons, and have been a multisport athlete for about 4 years now. I attempted my first triathlon early (for Wisconsin) in mid-May of 1997, and quickly discovered that swimming in a pool provides exactly ZERO preparation for open-water swimming, at least mentally. The swimming was going to be a problem, and it was going to take a lot of work to get through.
I came to multisport with no swimming background, no running background, and no cycling background. The closest I ever got to competitive athletics in high school was the JV golf team, and a personal goal of a sub-six mile. Genetics might be on my side, since my dad was a runner and my mom was a swimmer, but nothing was going to come easy. My swimming instruction ended once I got to "Minnow" at the YMCA - I was never going to advance further if I couldn't dive in, and I just couldn't get the hang of it...but I could swim. I'd learned to ride a bike at the age of 5, so that was second check on the plus side. As far as running went, I'd already run 2 marathons, so I knew I could run. But putting the three together was a different story.
I made it through that first triathlon swim, wasn't last out of the water in my wave, but had to breaststroke over half the 400m distance. The bike and run went well enough, and I ended up in the top half. Not exactly where I wanted to be, but not a terrible start either. A little self-reflection brought up an unpleasant instance with open water (falling between a boat and a pier at a young age) but that didn't seem to actually be the hang-up. The problem was elusive, and with school always present, it wasn't going to get resolved quickly.
I attempted another triathlon the following year, and the swim went better, except that the water was only 5 feet deep, so touching bottom was never a problem...but it did provide a few clues. The year after that I finally was done with the vast majority of my coursework, so I could take the Triathlon Training course, which culminated in a modified olympic-distance race as part of the course final. Swimming wasn't an issue at all, since it was in a pool (I was nearly last out of the water due to my slow-but-steady pace), and the bike and run allowed me to be quite competitive.
Meanwhile, I've been training and racing a few duathlons a year, along with various half-marathons, 5 mile, 5k and 10k races. After taking the triathlon class, I realized that I needed to once and for all deal with my open-water swimming issues, as they've started to manifest as near panic. I have doubt that I CAN swim, but something mental is interfering nonetheless.
So to bring this back around, I've decided that 2010 is the year to confront my fear of open water (the ice tea color, the weeds, the algae, the inability to see my hand more than a foot from my face -- all the joys of the Madison, WI chain of lakes). I'm planning on two triathlons this year, scheduled just after I finish a summer open water swim class. First is the Pewaukee sprint, and second, just two weeks later, is the Chisago Lakes 1/2 Iron. I don't expect to "race" either race, I just want to resolve this mental block once and for all.
I started running about 6 years ago after a realization that while I would never end up at 400+ pounds like a former coworker, my weight had been creeping upwards to nearly 240 pounds. When I started running, I could only make it about halfway around the block my apartment was part of (granted the full route around from front door to front door was 0.8 miles). That was a far cry from my senior year of high school when I managed a sub-six minute mile for the first time. I made the decision to get in shape, lose the weight, and I haven't looked back. I went from a couch potato to a running a sub-two hour half-marathon in one year. A few months later, I went back to school to start what ultimately has become a JD-PhD combination. I had dropped more than 60 pounds. I ran my first marathon a year later, followed a few months later by my second half-marathon and second marathon. In that same year I started competing in duathlons, and have been a multisport athlete for about 4 years now. I attempted my first triathlon early (for Wisconsin) in mid-May of 1997, and quickly discovered that swimming in a pool provides exactly ZERO preparation for open-water swimming, at least mentally. The swimming was going to be a problem, and it was going to take a lot of work to get through.
I came to multisport with no swimming background, no running background, and no cycling background. The closest I ever got to competitive athletics in high school was the JV golf team, and a personal goal of a sub-six mile. Genetics might be on my side, since my dad was a runner and my mom was a swimmer, but nothing was going to come easy. My swimming instruction ended once I got to "Minnow" at the YMCA - I was never going to advance further if I couldn't dive in, and I just couldn't get the hang of it...but I could swim. I'd learned to ride a bike at the age of 5, so that was second check on the plus side. As far as running went, I'd already run 2 marathons, so I knew I could run. But putting the three together was a different story.
I made it through that first triathlon swim, wasn't last out of the water in my wave, but had to breaststroke over half the 400m distance. The bike and run went well enough, and I ended up in the top half. Not exactly where I wanted to be, but not a terrible start either. A little self-reflection brought up an unpleasant instance with open water (falling between a boat and a pier at a young age) but that didn't seem to actually be the hang-up. The problem was elusive, and with school always present, it wasn't going to get resolved quickly.
I attempted another triathlon the following year, and the swim went better, except that the water was only 5 feet deep, so touching bottom was never a problem...but it did provide a few clues. The year after that I finally was done with the vast majority of my coursework, so I could take the Triathlon Training course, which culminated in a modified olympic-distance race as part of the course final. Swimming wasn't an issue at all, since it was in a pool (I was nearly last out of the water due to my slow-but-steady pace), and the bike and run allowed me to be quite competitive.
Meanwhile, I've been training and racing a few duathlons a year, along with various half-marathons, 5 mile, 5k and 10k races. After taking the triathlon class, I realized that I needed to once and for all deal with my open-water swimming issues, as they've started to manifest as near panic. I have doubt that I CAN swim, but something mental is interfering nonetheless.
So to bring this back around, I've decided that 2010 is the year to confront my fear of open water (the ice tea color, the weeds, the algae, the inability to see my hand more than a foot from my face -- all the joys of the Madison, WI chain of lakes). I'm planning on two triathlons this year, scheduled just after I finish a summer open water swim class. First is the Pewaukee sprint, and second, just two weeks later, is the Chisago Lakes 1/2 Iron. I don't expect to "race" either race, I just want to resolve this mental block once and for all.
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