Jumper 2.0

Otherwise titled, "finally getting back to housework"!

My wife teases me about running and triathlon being part of my midlife crisis! And in some respects there may be a little truth to it. Well, not the crisis part. A crisis would have involved in making drastic changes in my life, like with career or marriage! But I did have a "midlife" evaluation and decided to make changes regarding the direction of my health, how my time is spent and in what way do I want to be an example to my kids.

I think I made the right decision. Just "working out" didn't work out so I became involved with better goals and thus running and triathlon!

These changes to my daily routine was pretty hard on me at first. It was just tiring, exhausting to me. I now can exercise AND get things done around the house. I did do dishes, laundry etc. but projects were put on hold.

And I present to you example 1:

Finally, in 2009, we will be able to have a Christmas picture by the fireplace without dry wall screws. The pics are a little blurry. I may replace them tomorrow but you get the idea!

 Those taking a good luck may notice a couple of details I need to finish. A cover for the dimmer switch for a start. I promise Angela, it'll be done by the end of the weekend. No waiting another 4 years.

Now for the pantry!

I am on my 9th of 10 days off from work. Took a few vacation days to be with the family once school was out and to get a few things done around the house.

Still haven't done much training since Stillwater and now the NewBriTri but that doesn't mean I haven't done anything. I've been on a few bike rides including two with my son on the Gateway. He hasn't been biking, he's almost 14 and he is on my older bike that weighs like 12 pounds more, so we covered 14 miles the first ride and then 25 the next. That is the distance for the trail from the Maplewood Community Center to Pine Point Park and back. He rocked the the last 2/3's of the return trip. I am going to have to find a road bike for this kid soon as he'll do much better than I could possibly hope to imagine for me within a couple years. And I can imagine really good! ;-)

I also went to Lake Minnetresta at the Gunther's for the weekly Wednesday a.m. OWS. I plan on being there most Wednesdays.

Pictures to come.

Oh, almost forgot. Steve of the infamous Steve in a Speedo blog is having a contest to be put in the drawing to win a $75.00 gift certificate to OnlineShoes.com.

Having an easy race schedule this year!

June 6th - New Bri Tri (obviously I have already completed this)

August 1 - Urban Wildland 1/2 marathon

August 8 - Turtleman Triathlon (long swim, I chose this because it hits my weakness hard)

October 18 - Columbus Marathon


And then likely the addition of some 5K's and/or 10K's sprinkled in.

New Bri Tri!

I honestly forgot how fun a triathlon is. It's the Rock n' Roll of endurance sports! I realize that I have not been active long with endurance events with only 2 marathons, 1/2 marathon and now 3 sprint tri's but tri's have a completely different feel. I'm not sure why! Is it the transition area preparation?, Is it the music? Is it the instructions and cheering before the race? Is it the suits?, wetsuits?

Either way, there is an excitement at the beginning of the triathlon that just isn't rivaled by any marathon  I've run or marathon start that I've witnessed.

And I was exceptionally blessed that my Dad and son were at the beach to watch me. I was able to see my wife, mil and daughters on the bike as well! That was sweet.


The Swim - I was just too chicken to go out and warm up! 48 degrees at start time is what I am told. The water was nice and warm, at least with a wet suit it was. My fear was not warming up but coming out of the water after my warmup.
Anyway, I somehow wasn't anxious. A little worried but not anxious. I was only in a lake twice last year before June 13th and those swims were not so good. My only other 2 open water swims were in 2007. Would I be able to swim freestyle? Or will I panic? I haven't been swimming because of marathon training, what if that hurts my progress. And so on!
Despite those thoughts, I was positive. I have swam .5 miles before with very little freestyle and survived. I knew at the least that I could get through it.
I swam all freestyle for the first 1/3, almost 1/2 actually. It was amazing!!! Once the horn blew I just casually ran out until it was time to dive in and then started freestyle. I was in a crowd but nobody on top of me so I just kept swimming using the other swimmers as my mark on what direction I was going. Suddenly I looked up to see where I was and "where the hell is the buoy?" I looked back and was already past it. Saweeet, freestyle is fast. So I went back to swimming. My form was nowhere right and I was still too "anxious" to swim with bilateral breathing and I was taking a breath with every stroke. Things weren't as well once I was at the turn around buoy. My second half was much slower but I was able to always go back to freestyle even if it were only for 25 to 50 yards at a time.
After the 2nd turn around to come back to the beach, I reverted to my old swimming. It's weird, how can I be trying to swim, think I'm going straight but be going left really strong? Once I was half way back I was able to sight other swimmers again and then go straighter!

Pro's:      I was able to do freestyle, something that alluded me on other OWS's!
              17:01 for 1/2 mile

Con's:     Not able to freestyle the whole 1/2 mile
                17:01 for 1/2 mile is still pathetic.

Future goal: 14 minutes, then I'll go for 12! In other words freestyle the whole 1/2 mile.

The Bike:

I just felt pretty good on the bike. There wasn't much for hills so that helped with my lack of training. And I just got stronger and faster with every mile. The truth is, I didn't want it to end. It was my first outdoor bike of the year and it felt awesome. In fact I think that it's only my second outdoor bike since the accident.
That needs to change!

Pro's:     About a 20mph with only having trained 60 miles in the last two months.
               I passed many and was passed by few!


Con's: I'm very lucky that the little hills we did have didn't kill me. They seemed to slow down a lot of people that were around me though!

Future Goal:     I can do this so much faster. I'll be back!



The Run:

I wasn't sure about the run at first! My legs felt so heavy and I was breathing hard. But after about 1/2 mile, they loosened up and I ended up finishing in 24 minutes. The time mat must have been bad at the finish because everybody was given a run score rounded to the minute. What if I ran the 3 miles in 23-1/2 minutes meaning I finished in less than 1:28.

Pros:     Felt good, the marathon training did me good here
             Passed many, only passed by a couple

Cons:   None, this is my speed now and I didn't push this race!



Overall: A good effort by me. Improvement shown in the swim and run. I need to learn to open water swim! I can do this race faster than 1:20 or better if I master the swim.

This was a fun race for several reasons! One definite reason is that it is only 5 miles from my house. In fact, the bike course has a turn around point that is less that half a mile from my house! Secondly, I forgot how fun triathlons are. I have only done 2 of them, both sprints in 2007. I was registered for 4 races last year but was unable to race them due to that silly little bicycling accident.

Anyhow, this was a solid performance by me. This is the first (outdoor) triathlon that really shows that I have some promise in competing. I don't mean for any age group awards, I just mean really good performances that's not too far from the top age groupers!

So here are the results:

New Bri Tri

I am not good at asking for money!

Granted, It's not like I'm asking it for myself, but it's still hard.

My wife is walking the 3 day for Breast Cancer this year. That is 3 days of 20 miles each day!

There are so many worthy causes that we would like to donate to! However, this one hits a little closer to home for most of us. My mother just finished chemo after a double mastectomy, we have a friend, Cheryl, who is recovered and another friend Kari who is still dealing with breast cancer that has metastasized to the brain and spinal cord!

And now I have a coworker RN who is on LOA for surgery and treatment of breast cancer!

It seems to be everywhere!

If you are so inclined please donate toward her goal here!

Thank you!

Just a few thoughts to remind myself of later when I train for the next marathon.

1) I need to train more long, I didn't respect the distance well enough! I do respect the distance but I didn't. As I said in my last post, my long runs are on Sunday. I work every 3rd Sunday, 12 hour shifts, and then a Holiday or two fell on Sundays as well. That in itself is not a problem. The problem is that I didn't make up for it. I would just chalk it as a loss and figure the next week will be enough.

So here are my long runs this year:

1/25 - 10 miles  9:57 pace
2/22 - 13 miles  9:31 pace
3/1 -   10 miles, suppose to be 15 but I had a full day of downhill skiing with my son. Cross training. 9:09 pace
3/15 - 15.8 miles  9:18 pace
3/22 - 15 miles 9:18 pace
4/5  -  18 miles 9:42 pace
4/26 - 20 miles 9:27 pace
5/3   - 16 miles 9:18 pace. Suppose to be 22 miles!

And that is it!

2) My blood pressure is slowly getting better! 144/84 this morning, 145/86 yesterday! I'll keep you updated about this. The reality is that there is a certain level of caffeine that has a real negative effect on my blood pressure, and it appears to be cumulative. I can have a coke today, as long as I don't have 2 of them everyday. I am not sure why but this seems to have been "proven" by me a couple of times at which I ignore later thinking that it's stupid to think it's the caffeine. But I can't argue with my blood pressure.
I will still see my doctor about this but obviously it is not as urgent as if the bp had remained really high like the 170/110 I had one day last week.
One thing for sure, high bp like this could very well have had an effect on my training and may have been why I thought I was over-trained a few weeks ago.
Look at my paces above. These were long runs without a taper. You can see why I thought I could do a marathon at a better than a 4 hour pace!

3) My nutrition didn't feel too bad. They didn't have a free gel pack @ mile 18 like at TC so I should have prepared a little better. On this day I accepted oranges from people along the course. I forget what miles they were at but when I ate them they felt like they completely revived me. I just may have to bring my own orange slices on future marathons and training runs.

bib number:    275
age:    41
gender:    M
location:    Roseville, MN
overall place:    295 out of 453
division place:    47 out of 68
gender place:    222 out of 314
time:    4:28:21
pace:    10:15
10 k:    55:39
13.1:    2:01:14
20 m:    3:11:22
last 10k:    1:17:00
gun time :    4:29:12

No family out at this one so pictures are few. I don't mind. Do not think I'm putting myself down but I am just not photogenic. I am shocked when there is a photo of me that looks good.

Me and the highly loved IronJenny. I wonder if I always slouch or is it just for pics?

 If there are any pics of me on the course, I'll post them once they're put online!
Unless they are pics after mile 20! ;-)