Minneapolis Duathlon

Sunday was a beautiful day for a race...reminded me of Ironman Wisconsin last year. Over the last couple of weeks I been focused on building up my miles for the Twin Cities Marathon, so needless to say I was race preparation challenged. Thank goodness for a checklist...(is this your first race ever?).

Finally, we get everything into the Yukon and headed downtown...Yeah. Once we finalized our transition spots, we decided to take the bikes out for a warm up ride. Well everything was going as planned until I heard a loud "Bang" behind me and "Crap I just hit a pot hole!!" I stopped and waited until Heidi coasted up to me and I noticed that her front tire was flat. The logical thing was to fix it right...not so much. We usually don't carry spares for the tubular tires and for such a short race...who would of thought...well we didn't' anyways.

Since Heidi is training for the World Duathlon Championships, I decided to swap my front wheel just in case the "Race Support" couldn't fix it when we got back to the transition area. As I started my journey back to the transition area (walking my bike), Heidi rode her bike back to grab my running shoes and then run back to me so we could jog the rest of the way back. When we got back to the transition area, we notice that her back tire was flat too...OK, swap the back tires...now I am definitely out of the race.

So, I ended up just run/pace Heidi on the 5K runs and while she is on the bike I'll run around the course again and wait for her to come back from the bike. So I got my miles I needed for the weekend and Heidi was able to compete in the race...it was a great day!

Waiting at the DMV

Meranda and I are waiting at the Ridgedale DMV...man are they ever slow.

Smith Ave Hill Repeats

It was a great evening in St. Paul...a balmy 94 degrees and a slight breeze out of the west. The only thing that could have made this better was 98 degrees and more wind, espcially going up the hills. I always say "If you going to take the time to train, train in the worst conditions". Then when race day comes, it wasn't has bad as your training days...or it could be the same.

A PowerTab is a wonderful tool and it has nice graph and stats...a tech geek's dream. So here are my status for the the work (if you care)...

Update...Please

It's been since March so I will only recap the race highlights...
Boston Marathon 2009 - 4:00 hours. Had a great time in Bean town, saw some great historial sites and ran the marathon with Heidi.
Oakdale Duathlon 2009 - 1:16. First in my age group and it was a prep for Apple Duathlon.
Apple Duathlon 2009 - 1:37. 8th in my age group...tough division for a World Duathlon qualifer.
New Bri Tri 2009 - 1:15. 16th overall, 2nd age group...it was a great triathlon to start the year.
Liberty Triathlon Olympic 2009 - 2:17. 26th overall, 2nd age group.

More Training, Coach, More Training!

Awe, it was a great weekend to catch up on some sleep before hitting it hard again.  My training calendar has me scheduled for 18 hours this week, which is not too bad since we’re still out 20 days before the Boston Marathon... I guess I better trade some of the swim workouts for running.  A friend of mine would like to get a 20 mile run before Boston, so I might run with her on Friday…how far is still to be determined.  Getting a long run in on Friday may turn out to be a good thing since TCMC is holding their first annual Tri Bike Swap on Saturday at Grand Performance Bikes, located on Grand Ave in St. Paul.   Well it’s 2:00pm and I am preparing myself for spin class tonight…might try to get a 4 mile run in before spin class…that’s good training!

Where have you been?

Wow!  I have been away from my blog too long.  Over two months, but now that race season is about to start, I thought I better get my act together.  Since my last entry, I have been doing a lot of spinning and running...24 days until Boston Marathon.  Here's a funny...last Friday we did a 20 mile run...last time I ran 20+ miles was also in the ran...Twin Cities Marathon.  I've always had a dislike about running in the ran, so I would make excuses not to do it.  But now that I've actually run a marathon in the rain, it doesn't seem that bad to do a quick 6 miler...which I did on Tuesday.

 

Also in my preparation for racing, I am watching the calorie intake and trying lose 11 pounds…so far I’m down 5 pounds.  I’ve downloaded a program to my iPhone called “Lose It” and it has really helped watching the calories. 

Winter Running...Minnesota

It been interesting so far this year running, espically with all of the snow we've had this year. Boston Marathon is only 91 days away and I need to boost up my miles.  The schedule called for 14 miles today, but I ended running only 6...I wanted to get some "PowerCrank" riding in this weekend and time was running out.  I'vd been traveling to Dallas every other week, so I really enjoy the nice weather and an opportunity to run outside in shorts and a t-shirt.  I'll post some pictures next week of me running on the trails in Dallas.