Wednesday, September 25, 2013

What a Ride

This has been a wild ride.  The past month has been beyond stressful from an athletic point of view.  After we got back from our annual cross country camp I developed an illness that would lead to pneumonia so after 10 days completely off of running and only 2 weeks away from the Fox Cities 1/2 Marathon.  I got a few good days of solid workouts and tempo runs, but I would get sick again just 6 days from race day.  I managed to shake it with about a day to spare, but as I am sure you could imagine, I was nervous, was I ready to run fast, could I break 1:20, would I stay within 1:30, hell at one point I wondered if I would finish or run it at all.  Friday I tuned all that garbage out and just threw out all of my excuses and by race day I fell right back into race mode and attacking every mile with surgical precision. I felt the start was conservative for my normal style but for the best as I was cooked at the finish.  My first 5k was solid,  second did lend itself to me working on that for next year.  Fueling at mile 7 went smoothly.  And my last surge to the finish left me with no kick but probably would have been able to go if needed.  All in all this ended up being a great race on a stellar course  and despite all of the obstacles I was able to improve my time by over 5 minutes to  just under 1:20 according to the gps.  12th overall out of over 2700 runners. 2nd out of 167 in my age group.

I have a couple more lined up to finish out the year here in tomahawk, Stevens point, and possibly Wausau or Milwaukee .

Monday, January 7, 2013

Bringing In The New Year '13

What an end to 2012!  Daughter turns 2 just before Thanksgiving, we move out to a beautiful house with some acreage, I stick with a routine and stay healthy as well as logging time on skis, bike, snowshoes and running shoes all the while putting time in the weight room going beef!

2013 Brings some big changes, with the bike shop opening soon.  Bikes should begin showing up, parts and tools need to be ordered, marketing plans coming together and oh so much more.  Changing Gears is opening in Tomahawk and people are pumped.  I've done some digging in the archives at my employer gaining some history about silent sport activities to maybe publish some day.

Also, changing is my focus.  Since I've become healthy again I've really focused on running, but now kicking it up to 10k which was my strong suit anyway despite winning a 5K in 2012.  A lot of the changes in my training and racing is mainly cause I don't have the time to log ridiculous miles on the bike anymore or at least for now.  I am focusing on running logging anywhere from 20-60 miles per week, with some BMX riding and Singlespeed riding to work on my tech skillz for when the little one is not so little anymore.

It's cool though, I'll continue turning pedals on the Singlespeed living Metal the only way I know how....This Metal/TwinSix bravado is not just some cool shirts for cyclists it's a lifestyle, working at a bikeshop, riding to work, racing on weekends on the dirt in WEMS, or BMX Track or whatever, hell I would wear a jersey to a 10k depending on conditions.

One thing that stays consistent is the support from Infinit Nutrition.  I've learned to stick with what works and haven't changed since 2008.

Training has been good though, I can't be happier if I tried.  Down at least 15 pounds from this time last year with no BS travel to mess that up it's been nice to stay on track and not eat out at restaurants every night.  Working with the Track and Cross Country kids at the local high school certainly helps things progress and keeps me sharp.  I toward fall when things were winding down I was still running a 5:04 mile???? it can only get better in '13.  Time to crawl into the pain cave.