There’s a couple of things that I’ve been training for lately- I’m getting ready for this weekend’s 100 mile Centurion Bicycle race with a group of friends on a team we’re calling “Something About Mary” in honor of our friend Mary who we lost during Ironman training last year.  I’m also in the middle of training for the Chicago Marathon with Team In Training- and along the way raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  You can make a donation to those efforts here.

Between the two efforts- this weekend was “one step up and one step back.”

Starting with the Centurion training- Something About Mary hit the road early on Saturday morning and rode about 70 of the 100 mile course.  We rode about 35 of it last weekend and I had a horrible ride.  About 25 miles into last weekend’s ride I BONKED- I got dizzy, felt really weak and thought I was going to throw up.

So after last weekend’s debacle- it felt good to get out on this course and ride it like I know we can, or more precisely- like I know I can, as I was the one having problems last weekend.

We started at Uphill Grind in Cross Plains and rode out to the loop- did one loop plus a smaller loop that included the big Enchanted Valley hill.  I felt good throughout the ride- maybe a little tired by the end of the Enchanted Valley loop- but really good overall.

On the course we ran into a couple guys riding from Oregon to Maine.  When we got back to Cross Plains after the big loop we stopped for a water refill at Uphill Grind before heading out for the last few miles.  As we left Uphill Grind, we saw the cross-county travelers again, so we rode back to them and told them about Uphill Grind.  When we finished our ride they were still there, telling stories of their adventures to all the other riders that were hanging out at Uphill Grind.

We finished off the day with a great smoothie- definitely hit the spot after the ride.

That was the “one step up” part of the weekend.  The “one step back” part came on Sunday.  It was a step back, in that I didn’t get out for the planned Team In Training run on Sunday afternoon, but it was worth it.  I spent the day working as the race announcer for the Bicycle Races at the U.S. Transplant Games.  I remember from the last time I was a race announcer (about 15 years ago at Madison Marathon- long before I was active myself), that this is a really tough gig.  Even now that I am a fairly active guy, this is still a tough day- in fact I’d say this is actually harder than racing.

This was a particularly inspiring race to work- transplant patients from all across the country come together once every other year for the games- they rotate through cities- last time Philadelphia, this time Madison.  1500 athletes + family and friends and some doners and their families too.  It makes for a pretty emotional event.

Beyond the obvious emotion of the event and the inspirational part of watching every athlete- fast and slow alike- come across the finish line, the coolest non-race moment came when I was looking down at my notes- I noticed out of the corner of my eye a Felt bike with an argyle patern ride past- I looked up just in time to be staring Christian Vande Velde from team Garmin/Slipstream in the eye.  Christian has had a couple of top 10 finishes at the Tour de France.  Christian’s brother Ian was competing and won his age group in both the 5k time-trial and the 20k race.  A woman who I assume was his grandmother wanted to introduce us, but I was too busy at the moment…maybe next time.

This past weekend was the Door County Half Ironman race- My “A” race for the year.  Heading into the race I felt fit, but also felt like I had not stuck as closely to the plan as I should have.  I was right on the first count and wrong on the second count (either that or it didn’t matter).

As always, I’ll split the race report into 4 seperate blogs.  Today- the PREGAME!

We left for Door County Friday night after work.  I’ve been to Door County before, but somehow never as an adult, so this was going to be a whole new experience for me.  I didn’t realize quite how long it would take to get up there- so leaving at 6pm, it was almost 10 before we arrived at our hotel.  After unpacking the car, we started wandering- looking for the bar/restaurant.  As we wandered through the parking lot having no idea where we were going, we asked a group of people “where’s the bar?”  And from the group behind them I hear “figures you’d be looking for the bar.”  It was my friends Matt & Julie and their family, who ended up in a room two doors down from us.  Unfortunately, by the time Laura and I found the bar they were no longer serving food.  But they were still serving wine!

On Saturday morning me and Matt & Julie drove to the race site where we met our friends Josh & Stef for a swim and eventually also ran into John & Casey.  Having done the swim we checked out the transition area and then headed off to lunch at the Shipwrecked Brew Pub.  No brew for me- remember the wine from last night?  Next, the first of a couple (o.k. a few) Ice Cream stops on the trip, followed by me and Laura riding some of the run course on our bikes.  One hill in particular was pretty daunting- Laura and I rode DOWN the hill, while the race course actually took you the other way- UP the hill.  Lets just say this…it was intimidating going down.

Saturday night was our big pasta feed- the gang that had been hanging out earlier in the day plus Meagan and her family all met for a great Italian dinner.  After dinner, a casual walk down the street for more ice cream!

Early to bed on Saturday night- after obessing over packing my transition bag.  And early to rise on Sunday morning.

Off to the races and it’s time to set up my transition area.  I have a very specific race-day ritual.  That ritual keeps me occupied for the time leading up to the start of the race.  It includes taping GU packets to the top bar of my bike, laying out a towel in transition, with shoes placed neatly on the towel- socks neatly layed over the top of the bike shoes- helmet sitting upside down on the areobars of the bike, glasses inside the helmet, race number belt neatly hanging over the aerobars- what did the announcer say?  We don’t need to wear the race number on the bike…race number belt moved to the towel- neatly layed out behind the running shoes, a banana sitting behind each pair of shoes, a bag of boiled potatoes sitting beind the bike shoes (to be moved to the spot behind the running shoes after I have a potato or two during T1 (first transition- between the swim and the bike) and finally the wetsuit is on- up to my waist and my goggles (cloudy day- clear goggles today) and swim cap tucked into the front of my TRI-top.  Told you I was obsessive.

What did the race announcer just say?

There’s a storm coming.  The race is delayed by 30 minutes.  But I time all of this out so that I have something to do with all of my nervous energy for the entire time before the race.  Now what?  And I’m wave 10, so even when the race does start, I have a 30 minute wait until I get to go.

But I got through it all.

Tomorrow- the SWIM!

So, for some dumb reason, we decided to turn the Crazylegs run into a brick last weekend.  I put out the e-mail to my teammates, so I should probably take the blame, but I truely don’t think it was my idea- I just sent out the invite.

Anyway, since it wasn’t an official team event I also invited a few non team members to join us.  A simple route- the stem of the Ironman course- out to Verona and back.  We started at 7am, so we’d have plenty of time to then get up to the square for the start of Crazylegs.

Well, we made it almost to Verona when we saw the first of the lightning- so we turned back.  Hindsight is 20/20- we probably should have just continued on to Verona, stopped in to Grays for a Bloddy Mary and watched the storm pass.  But we didn’t- we turned back.  Which meant- by the time the storm really hit, we were about half-way between Madison and Verona- with no place to seek shelter.  So we rode…through the rain…and the lightning…and I think maybe some hail…until we came to a convience store just outside of Madison.  When we pulled in we saw a police car- so I asked the officer if he knew anything about the storm.  The officer took me to his car to show me the radar and assure me that we were right on the very edge of the storm- we should be alright.

So off we went- back towards Madison, until one of the riders (of course it was one of the non-team members who I ahd invited along for a fun morning ride) caught his tire on the edge of the road and wiped out…into the lane of traffic.  Thankfully there were no cars coming at that moment, although we did need to stop traffic for a bit while he pulled himself up off the road.  I will say- since nobody was hurt- it was a really cool looking crash.  Looked like something you’d see at the Tour de France.  Only those guys would have been going about 50 down the side of a mountain.

After all of that- we decided to skip the run.  Instead I found a nice warm bar and had a Bloody Mary.  Hey- I already had the T-shirt.  Quite obviously, I wasn’t the only one thinking that way.

Over the weekend I was a “celebrity” server at the United Cerebral Palsy dinner and auction. One of the auction items was a one hour personal training session with former UW Track stars and Olympic runners Cindy Bremser (first female All-American ever at the UW, 4th in the women’s 3000 meters at the 1984 Summer Olympics, Silver medal at the 1983 Pan-Am games in the women’s 1500 meters, etc) and Suzy Favor Hamilton (9 NCAA titles, US Olympian in 1992, 1996 & 2000, etc). 

I bid.  I won!

Suzy was not at the dinner, but Cindy agreed the the “training session” would be a group run with the team that I train with. So once the weather breaks, me and all my friends will be hitting the road with 2 of the best runners ever to come out of Wisconsin.  I told Cindy that if by chance I could actually beat her (yeah, right!  I had a couple of beers in me at that point), I would have material for my blog for the rest of the year (did I ever tell you about the time I beat…)

Bring on the warm weather!  We’ve done a couple of group runs on Sunday mornings- out on the Ironman course for about 6 miles followed by hill repeats on Observatory Drive.  You know the hill- on campus, as you drive along the lake-front.  Even if you don’t know the hill- you know it’s a HILL.  Any road with the word “Observatory” in it’s name is a bitch of a hill.  It’s even more of a bitch of a hill when the temperature is below zero.  Which it has been the last two times we did group runs on Observatory Drive.  Last time a teammate pointed out that when Summer comes, we can do this in shorts and then head to the Union Terrace for a beer afterward.  Well, we’ve got another group run, with hill repeats on Observatory Drive on Sunday. 

Temps expected to be in the 40’s!

You probably won’t find me sitting on the Union Terrace drinking a beer on Sunday, but I will be teh one running Observatory Drive in shorts!

I swam with a friend this morning with a friend.  After the swim, we were sitting in the hottub talking and she told me about a mutual friend who is planning on running the Madison Half-Marathon with her Mom.  Mom is so excited about the challenge that she wants to get started right away on her training- but it’s too cold to run outside, so she’s running inside.  Now here’s the good part- she measured out the distance around her kitchen (I’m guessing there is an island in the middle of the kitchen and she measured the distance around the island) and figured out that 200 laps around her kitchen equals 1/2 mile.  So that’s been the start of her training schedule- 200 laps around the kitchen!  I said I was almost as impressed by her ability to keep track of 200 laps as I was with her decision to take on the challenge of a 1/2 marathon.

The football world kinda has the word “Super” tied up this weekend, and if you have ever tried to market something around that game, you know how serious they are about it. 

But this really is a BIG weekend for Wisconsin Athletes.

On Saturday there is a swim clinic with Kari Woodall at the McFarland High School pool.  The clinic comes VERY highly recommended from several people (even though I’m not a strong swimmer- I know some people who are, and they say it’s a BIG deal).  Check out Kari’s resume…

* Member of 4 US National Teams

* US National Team Captain

* 5 Time NCAA Individual All-American

* Professionally Sponsored Athlete

* 11 years experience as Division I coach at UNC, Northwestern and UW-Madison

For more on the clinic- check out WoodallTraining.com

Also this weekend- it’s the 2009 Great Lakes Multisport and Running Expo at State Fair Park down by Milwaukee.

Two days (Saturday and Sunday) of World Class Keynote Speakers, over 150 exhibitors, 18 technical sessions and even a 5k race on Sunday morning.  Tickets are $7 in advance (I believe Endurance House still has some left) or $10 at the door.  find out more at multisportexpo.com

After my last run- hill repeats in the bitter cold on Sunday morning- my feet were sore for a couple of days.  My dad had told me about something called “foot wakers,” but had leant his to a teammate.  He swears by them.  I saw the teammate at swim class and she gave them to me to give back to my dad.  She also said they do wonders.  O.K., I’ll give them a try.

Amazing.  The goofy little half-balls completely took away the pain.  My wife thinks they look like little bumpy boobs- but the darn things work, so I don’t care.

Anyone up for a run?

…or, actually “Smoked by a chicken.”

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this, and that just may be because I was good and embarassed on Januaray first.  I decided that a good run would be the way to start the new year- so I headed out to Quaker Steak & Lube, where there was what was described as a “challenging” 5 mile run.  I paid my entry fee and lined up.  Just behind me for the the start of the race was the Quaker Steak & Lube Chicken- that’s right, the Lube’s mascot was racing.  Not only was the mascot racing, but the mascot was pretty damn fast.  i stayed in front of him/her for about the first 4 miles and then it happened- I was passed by the mascot!  And there was nothing I could do- I just couldn’t catch the Chicken.  Worse than that was the fact that when I went to look at the official results there was my name (with a pretty decent time- not my best ever, but not bad) and two places above me…The Quaker Steak & Lube Chicken.

It’s a new PR for a 10k race!  On Thursday morning, before the big Thanksgiving meal, I joined my Mom, Dad, Sister and a bunch of teammates for the Berbee Derby (it’s like a Thanksgiving day parade…only faster).  I felt really good going into the race and even told my wife that I would come home with a PR.  She smiled and wished me well.

On Wednesday night, I was talking with one of my training partners who asked my goals for the race- I said I hadn’t really thought about is, except that I wanted to try to run it fast.  She agreed and suggested about an 8 min/mile pace- so that was our goal and that would have easily given me a personal record. 

Well, not only did I get that PR- I blew it out of the water!  I crossed the finish line at about 46 minutes- a pace of 7:27!