Labour Day weekend in Madison

What a funtastic weekend in Madison!

Friday had me going to a bar on the East side that had me watching the most wonderful view of a sunset on Lake Monona.

Saturday had me waking up and running 10 miles. I must say though, this was the hardest 5 miles of my running life. I had no idea when the next mile marker was going to take place or where it was or how to get there! At first I was on a bike path, then it went onto a sidewalk but I was still following the signs for the bike path and then I found another bike path through a high school football & soccer fields then back out of the path and onto sidewalks again. It was odd. I thought Madison had more bike paths then this! I'll look for maps later on since I have a feeling I'll be visiting Madison a lot! This was also the first time that I had a run that took me across major roads and I had to cross them. I also stopped for a long time in Mile 6 at a Citgo to fill up my water bottle since I had almost ran out.

Saturday afternoon had me going to Taste of Madison. Walked around the Capital Square and was checking out all the foods & bands. It's different than the Taste of Chicago where it's a ticket system, this is cash-based and no "tastes." Full portions here. I had a few different items, this one is a portebella sandwich on a bagel. I'm glad no one got a picture of me eating it! Messy messy messy!

Saturday evening was the highlight of the entire weekend. NIU vs. UW-Madison. I can't believe how great the seats were that we got very last minute! They were end-zone but only 5 rows from the front! We ended up losing 28-20 but scored 14 points in the 4th quater alone! We were staging a comeback! Kevin & I are NIU alum and his wife was born in Milwaukee and attended Illinois State so we were giving her a hard time for being a "traitor" and wearing UW garb! We were getting heckled a lot, especially in the 4th quarter when Badger fans started to get worried when their lead started to slip.

I was so sore though, walking back to the car after the game. From the run and then the walking around Taste and then the game, my body is definitely letting me know it's age!

On Sunday morning, Kevin & I tried to go on a bike ride. However, that ended up failing. At 4.5 miles into the ride, I heard this whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and then a whoooooooooooooosh. My front tire got a flat. Oh great. And this was happening on a pretty woody, downhill part of the ride and Kevin was far far ahead of me by this time. I yelled his name but he didn't hear me. Luckily, as I was walking my bike down the hill, a guy passed me and told Kevin (since he was stopped) that I was walking my bike. So he came back to find me. As we were at the bottom of the hill getting his CO2 pump ready, we were getting bitten by mosquitos big time. So we decided to leave the area and just have his wife come and pick us up. Up to a neighbourhood where the mosquitos followed us for a bit. We went to an intersection and sat down and decided that we both would try to change the tube in my tire. Apparently, we didn't do it right though since the tube went flat again as it was on my bike rack these past 2 days. I took it down to North Central Cyclery and got a new tube and they fixed it up for me. (On a side note, I got a NIU Cycling Jersey while down there too!)

We got it finished just as Jess was pulling up! HA! Kevin took off to ride back while Jess & I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things for...

The beach! Nothing really to report here. We pretty much just laid around getting some sun. The water was a bit too chilly to really get in there. Later on that night was a fire pit and rum runners and neighbours in the cul-de-sac. Good times.

Monday was a relaxing day. I didn't do any exercise but it didn't mean I was just lounging around! Down a local pool, they closed it down for humans but invited canines and their owners down so the doggies can enjoy the pool for a day! It was great fun seeing all the dogs running and playing with each other. Later on was grilling out and then I headed on out back to Illinois.

It was the first time that I was actually truly sad leaving Madison and going back to DeKalb. It was just that great of a weekend!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1033 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: -50 ft Date: 09/05/09 Up/Downhill: [+442/-492] Time: 07:56 AM Difficulty: 3.2 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 10.00 miles Time: 1:40:57 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 06 /mi Calories: 1069 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 05 -1' 01 6.6 +0.7 -89 ft 2 10' 00 -0' 06 6.0 +0.1 +16 ft 3 10' 14 +0' 08 5.9 -0.1 +7 ft 4 10' 34 +0' 28 5.7 -0.3 +4 ft 5 10' 32 +0' 26 5.7 -0.3 -39 ft 6 13' 28 +3' 22 4.5 -1.5 +82 ft 7 9' 53 -0' 13 6.1 +0.1 -46 ft 8 11' 11 +1' 05 5.4 -0.6 -3 ft 9 9' 53 -0' 13 6.1 +0.1 -27 ft end 10' 09 +0' 03 5.9 -0.0 +40 ft Versus average of 10' 06 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1004 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: -98 ft Date: 09/06/09 Up/Downhill: [+318/-416] Time: 10:44 AM Difficulty: 2.6 / 5.0 Weather: Fair with Haze 72 F temp; 65% humidity 72 F heat index; winds Calm Performance Distance: 5.01 miles Time: 0:51:05 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 10 /mi Calories: 338 Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 5' 12 -4' 58 11.5 +5.6 -20 ft 2 4' 11 -5' 59 14.3 +8.4 -26 ft 3 8' 08 -2' 02 7.4 +1.5 -91 ft 4 4' 29 -5' 41 13.4 +7.5 +63 ft end 30' 46 +20' 35 1.9 -4.0 -49 ft Versus average of 5.9 mph

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 10 miles, biking, Madison