TOMRV - recap

Well, Day 2 has come and gone. It was a great weekend and now I can officially say that I've biked a considerate amount of distance 2 days in a row!

After I got back to the B&B (around 7:30pm or so) I immediately charged my phone and answered a few texts and Facebook messages. Then I took a shower. That felt glorious!! I was asleep by 10pm! HA!

I did wake up with a very sore neck/shoulders!! Not from not having a pillow but from haunching over my handlebars in the rain and trying to keep warm Saturday morning. (I had the same problem the first day of RAGBRAI last year.) Awake at 6:30a and out of the room by 7am.

Ate the breakfast the innkeeper cooked up. I asked for hashbrowns but unfortunately she used way too much grease and it was just one big pile of mess. I remembered she did that last year too. Some fresh fruit as well and walked back up to Loras College to catch the shuttle back to Clarke College where the bikes & baggage trucks were located.

This was a few minutes before 8am and the bike lockup area was practically empty! Only 10 or so bikes left! I have no idea what time they all leave in the morning but it must be pretty darn early!!

Had my bike tires checked out and come to find out they were low. They were also low Saturday. So low in fact that a lady riding by me on a hill told me about my back tire. When I looked down I could see how low they were. So I stopped and got out my CO2 cartridge and luckily 3 guys were nice enough to stop and help me out. Both tires were low. They managed to figure it out (I had the instructions with me just in case no one ever stopped) and they "ooooh" and "ahhhh" over my nifty CO2 pump! They liked it so I must have done good. Unfortunatley, I only brought one CO2 cartridge with me so they had to split it between my 2 tires. But after that little pump it, it made a world of difference on the bike. I could feel myself gliding along a lot better.

Then on the road. First bit of the ride was through a great Mines of Spain Recreation Center. Pretty shade and the like there. I managed to ride with a few guys. Ended up passing them on a hill too. They commented on the fact that I wasn't breathing hard. One guy had on his cycling computer a hill grade percentage readout, so he was calling out the numbers. That one was an 8% incline. Not too bad.

Back down a few hills, one hill was great fun but at the very end was a railroad crossing that the tracks did not look safe at all and I didn't notice that until AFTER I was already on top of it! It was a rough crossing. Not cool going so fast.

I was able to take a lot more pics today than Saturday since the weather was better and I have pictures last year from the Saturday ride.

I did also managed to meet a few people on the ride. I think bikers are a bit nicer than runners. Anyway, one guy passed me wearing a jersey that said "Best Singletrack in Central Illinois" and hten another one passed me. I was like OK, I have to ask where, so I did. They said Peoria. I said sweet! He asked if I ride and where, I said yea I go to Rock Cut. He asked if I ever went to Kettle Moraine, I said no but I've heard of it. Then he said that if I ever get to Peoria (they have 5 parks) that I should look them up. I told him I will but I'll never be able to keep up with them. They said that I was keeping up with them now! They had a point. :-)

I saw them at the first SAG stop but everyone looks so different off of their bikes, sunglasses and helmets I didn't think they would remember me so I didn't say anything. Then I guess I took off before them and they passed me again later on. One asked me if I always had my CamelBak on me. I said yes, you were just in front of me by that time! We stayed together again talking about biking, road vs mountain and this ride vs others. I managed to draft off them for a while and stayed with them going about 17mph. That was sweet. I think they were impressed. :-)

This route had some rolling long hills. But the good news is that again I never got off my bike and actually I never unclipped my pedals either. They were tough and again I went into the highest gear on all of the hills. I needed to. During this one hill I did pass 7 people! That was awesome. For some odd reason I was really good at the hills. It's not like I have the strongest quads or anything, I guess I just liked to attack them and maybe I recover fast from the burning.

When I got back to Preston, around 12:30pm, I was walking around the Lion's food table and then I heard my name. The Peoria mountain bike people recognised me without my helmet on! And they told me not to go anywhere. A few minutes later one of them came up to me with a napkin and had written their names on it with their cell phone and the website for the Peoria Mountain Bike association they're in. That was totally awesome of them! I told them that I'll be going down for the air show on Sunday in July so maybe I'll catch up with them then. It'll be fun to catch some good rides somewhere else!

And now for some pictures!

People were walking their bikes over this bridge. It was wet and slippery. Last year we were able to just ride our bikes over.

A farm that I stopped in front of. Kitty cat wanted to see me! It kinda stunk too. :-)

A guy with no seat to his bike. He rode 106 miles that Sat doing that!!

My food. This was just the 1st plate. I went up for seconds. Yes, I still ate my food one item at a time!

An ad for the B&B on the shuttle bus.

The next morning at 8am. Very few bikes left in the lockup.

Beautiful Iowa Scenery!

My one and only shot of me and my bike from this weekend.

Yay for biking and Iowa fields!!

Baby horsies!!!! I only captured these two but come to find out the other 5 mares had foals too, they were just hiding behind them!

Look at that. A hill. Yay.

I heart Iowa!

I went down and went back up. Whoa.

That's the same hill in the background.

Yep, look at that yet another hill.

Oh, more hills. *rolls eyes*

My Peoria Mountain Bike friends!

Now for some yummy sun goodness. I did put on SPF 30 spray but I guess not good enough. I have to remember to get up and under my shorts to make sure I don't miss any skin in case anything rides up.

So begins the permanent high thigh look.

This was from my knee brace. I only had the one that I wore on my right knee.

This was on the bottom of my knee brace on the same leg. Such an odd tan line.

I put on sunscreen but since I had my watch on, I didn't get around it, so I missed my wrist. And you can see on my fingers that I got burned from my gloves.

Of course the back of my arm. I got the front of my arms but I guess I forgot the back!

I also got sunburned on the side of my face. And of course it was only on the left side and a little bit on my nose. My right wrist had some burns too. I had my GPS watch and my Ovarian Cancer bracelet on so a few marks there.

Speaking of Phil, my Garmin, I did wear it on Saturday but it died 5 hours and 30 minutes with the GPS watch on (I knew it wouldn't last the entire ride.) I rode from 9am to 6:30pm, I think. That was with plenty of SAG breaks and one long one in Galena. I mean, it's Galena, how could you NOT stop?! Then on Sunday, I forgot to start it until I was out of Dubuque for quite a while.

I edited the Saturday's post with the Bones In Motion info from that days ride. The reason why there are two of them is because I forgot to change the setting from Running to Biking. And then there's the quick line over to the other side of the river because I didn't click on the right button to reset the Garmin. Below is Sunday's info. I forgot to put it on and then start it in Dubuque so I didn't get to it until well outside of it. After a few hills already. You can see how insane some of the hills are!!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 761 ft Location: Saint Donatus, IA Elev. Gain: -495 ft Date: 06/14/09 Up/Downhill: [+2083/-2578] Time: 09:19 AM Difficulty: 4.4 / 5.0 Weather: Mostly Cloudy 72 F temp; 59% humidity 72 F heat index; winds N 3 Performance Distance: 34.68 miles Time: 2:46:44 Speed: 12.5 mph Pace: 4' 48 /mi Calories: 1550 Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 2' 47 -2' 01 21.5 +9.0 -213 ft 2 4' 16 -0' 32 14.0 +1.5 -138 ft 3 2' 58 -1' 50 20.2 +7.7 -65 ft 4 3' 14 -1' 34 18.5 +6.0 -29 ft 5 3' 51 -0' 57 15.6 +3.1 -16 ft 6 5' 03 +0' 15 11.9 -0.6 +59 ft 7 8' 13 +3' 25 7.3 -5.2 +295 ft 8 4' 48 +0' 00 12.5 +0.0 +9 ft 9 3' 31 -1' 17 17.0 +4.5 -20 ft 10 3' 40 -1' 08 16.4 +3.9 -23 ft 11 2' 21 -2' 27 25.5 +13.0 -246 ft 12 3' 01 -1' 47 19.9 +7.4 -86 ft 13 3' 50 -0' 58 15.6 +3.1 -16 ft 14 3' 39 -1' 09 16.4 +3.9 -6 ft 15 14' 31 +9' 43 4.1 -8.4 -7 ft 16 4' 08 -0' 40 14.5 +2.0 -3 ft 17 4' 28 -0' 20 13.4 +0.9 +52 ft 18 3' 37 -1' 11 16.6 +4.1 -30 ft 19 4' 07 -0' 41 14.6 +2.1 +42 ft 20 5' 00 +0' 12 12.0 -0.5 +98 ft 21 4' 51 +0' 03 12.4 -0.1 +13 ft 22 4' 07 -0' 41 14.6 +2.1 -23 ft 23 11' 33 +6' 45 5.2 -7.3 +66 ft 24 4' 13 -0' 35 14.2 +1.7 -23 ft 25 5' 38 +0' 50 10.7 -1.8 +82 ft 26 3' 57 -0' 51 15.2 +2.7 -16 ft 27 3' 37 -1' 11 16.6 +4.1 -78 ft 28 4' 03 -0' 45 14.8 +2.3 -33 ft 29 4' 04 -0' 44 14.8 +2.2 -20 ft 30 3' 32 -1' 16 16.9 +4.4 -30 ft 31 2' 55 -1' 53 20.5 +8.0 -82 ft 32 7' 57 +3' 09 7.5 -5.0 -10 ft 33 4' 27 -0' 21 13.5 +1.0 -3 ft 34 4' 24 -0' 24 13.6 +1.1 +19 ft end 9' 33 +4' 45 6.3 -6.2 0 ft Versus average of 12.5 mph

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: TOMRV

TOMRV Day 1

Well, I made it here to Dubuque. 69.5 miles was the reading on my cycling computer. Took 5h42'. I managed to make it up The Wall without getting off my bike. In fact, I made it up all hills without getting off my bike. I had to scroll down to the lowest gear possible (or is it the highest I'm confused about that).

It rained the entire first 2 hours of the ride. And then rained all night the night before. It pretty much sucked. And of course I forgot my damn pillow so I had to use my jacket for a head rest and that didn't feel good. I took down my wet tent and found a toad hiding under it. Cute tiny thing!

I'm loving my knee brace that I bought. Kept my knee compressed and will go buy another one for my other knee. My knees were fine until I reached Galena. And then I don't know but they just started killing me. It was at the 50 mile mark. But then they got better right before I hit The Wall I think.

Finally took part of the buffet that they have at Clarke College. Vegetarian options were enough to satisfy me. But the great part is that they have enough food at the SAG stops that you never really get hungry the entire ride. Since it was cool and rained in the morning, I didn't drink much on the way up.

I'm staying at the Bed & Breakfast and can't wait to get back to take a shower. I just took my bike right up to the Clarke College and then ate and now back to the B & B for a rest WITH A PILLOW! I must remember to add that to my camping list.

I also was able to snag a jersey at the college. They only had 3 left all in smalls and one in a short sleeve! YAY! Took all the cash I had but that's fine. I'm loving the jersey. If I had an extra dollar, I would have snagged a patch too.

Guys, I think I'd rather run a marathon than bike for nearly 6 hours. But the good news is that I now know that I can do anything in the rain. HA!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 743 ft Location: Preston, IA Elev. Gain: +151 ft Date: 06/13/09 Up/Downhill: [+236/-85] Time: 08:48 AM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0 Weather: Overcast 59 F temp; 86% humidity 59 F heat index; winds E 9 Performance Distance: 4.23 miles Time: 0:22:29 Speed: 11.3 mph Pace: 5' 19 /mi Calories: 428 Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph)

Posted from bimactive.com

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 727 ft Location: Miles, IL Elev. Gain: +344 ft Date: 06/13/09 Up/Downhill: [+2683/-2339] Time: 09:13 AM Difficulty: 4.4 / 5.0   Weather: Overcast   66 F temp; 67% humidity   66 F heat index; winds N 7 Performance Distance: 41.39 miles Time: 5:32:47 Speed: 7.5 mph Pace: 8' 00 /mi Calories: 3322 Map   Elevation (ft)   Speed (mph)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 4' 56 -3' 04 12.2 +4.7 +59 ft 2 4' 35 -3' 25 13.1 +5.6 -91 ft 3 5' 01 -2' 59 12.0 +4.5 -7 ft 4 5' 52 -2' 08 10.2 +2.7 +115 ft 5 5' 06 -2' 54 11.7 +4.2 +7 ft 6 4' 41 -3' 19 12.8 +5.3 +3 ft 7 3' 00 -5' 00 19.9 +12.4 -242 ft 8 3' 57 -4' 03 15.1 +7.6 -55 ft 9 10' 07 +2' 07 5.9 -1.6 +6 ft 10 4' 18 -3' 42 13.9 +6.4 0 ft 11 6' 19 -1' 41 9.5 +2.0 -10 ft 12 5' 39 -2' 21 10.6 +3.1 +13 ft 13 3' 56 -4' 04 15.2 +7.7 0 ft 14 4' 05 -3' 55 14.7 +7.2 +3 ft 15 33' 31 +25' 31 1.8 -5.7 0 ft 16 4' 19 -3' 41 13.9 +6.4 +23 ft 17 4' 28 -3' 32 13.4 +5.9 +13 ft 18 4' 03 -3' 57 14.8 +7.3 +6 ft 19 4' 05 -3' 55 14.6 +7.1 -6 ft 20 4' 00 -4' 00 14.9 +7.4 +4 ft 21 3' 47 -4' 13 15.8 +8.3 -16 ft 22 4' 20 -3' 40 13.8 +6.3 -26 ft 23 5' 55 -2' 05 10.1 +2.6 +32 ft 24 4' 16 -3' 44 14.1 +6.6 +19 ft 25 35' 30 +27' 30 1.7 -5.8 -33 ft 26 4' 42 -3' 18 12.8 +5.2 +63 ft 27 7' 38 -0' 22 7.9 +0.4 +230 ft 28 11' 16 +3' 16 5.3 -2.2 +40 ft 29 4' 56 -3' 04 12.2 +4.7 +39 ft 30 4' 04 -3' 56 14.7 +7.2 -23 ft 31 4' 32 -3' 28 13.2 +5.7 +40 ft 32 4' 57 -3' 03 12.1 +4.6 +16 ft 33 23' 42 +15' 42 2.5 -5.0 -138 ft 34 5' 32 -2' 28 10.8 +3.3 -207 ft 35 5' 18 -2' 42 11.3 +3.8 +59 ft 36 3' 27 -4' 33 17.4 +9.9 -85 ft 37 4' 29 -3' 31 13.4 +5.9 -7 ft 38 14' 29 +6' 29 4.1 -3.4 +210 ft 39 4' 07 -3' 53 14.5 +7.0 -121 ft 40 3' 22 -4' 38 17.8 +10.3 -79 ft 41 25' 12 +17' 12 2.4 -5.1 -36 ft end 03' 50' 46 +03' 42' 46 0.3 -7.2 0 ft Versus average of 7.5 mph

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Categories: TOMRV

TOMRV route

Here's the crazy ride I'm doing this weekend. I'm driving over tonight after work, setting up camp at the city park in Preston, IA and heading out tomorrow morning! About 69 miles on Saturday, 45 on Sunday. Should be good weather this year. Last year, it stormed bad on Sunday, didn't even ride! Might get storms on Friday night but that's why I have the tent!


View TOMRV in a larger map

I never did get new running shoes. The clerk called and even Nike didn't have my size (11.5 narrow) in stock for the Moto+ 6. So I'l have to get the 7's. Oh well. I guess my next paycheck will go to those. Hopefully there wasn't that much of a change between the 2 models.

Categories: shoes, TOMRV

Lakefront Marathon training

My training for Lakefront Marathon starts on 6/15. I can't believe that it's creeping up on me so soon!! I have also booked my hotel as well. There's a group from NITRO doing the race and they've all booked the same hotel so I just followed suit. Most of them are staying Saturday & Sunday night. I only booked for Saturday night. I just hope I can get a late enough checkout so I can shower afterwards. (Race starts at 8a so I'll be running to 12:30p) I might switch it up to another hotel closer downtown. But dealing with parking for 2700 runner's shouldn't be that bad right?

I think I'm going to follow Runner's World SmartCoach plan again. It seemed to work for me last time so I might as well give it another go. I gotta work up to 8 miles by June 21st. We'll see if that happen since this weekend I'll be in Iowa & northwestern Illinois for TOMRV. Won't be able to run but I think that biking for 69 miles on Saturday will count. My heart will be beating and legs will be pumping continuously... a lot more than if I was just running.

This week I have to start packing for it. As well as put on my bike rack to my car. Gotta bring my tent and air mattress and sleeping bag and of course all my biking stuff. Gotta adjust my clips on my shoes. So much to do, so little time.

Today I timed my run. I had to run to the post office immediately after work so I got home late but was still able to start my run by 4:58pm. 30 minutes of running and then a quick 10 minute (cool-temp!) shower. And I could have been ready by 6pm but that would be pushing it so 6:30pm is the best bet to set up a meeting. And normally every 2 weeks I have a non-profit board meeting to go to on Monday's and with getting out of work at my normal time of 4pm, I can get done (without a shower though) by 5:30p and that's with a stop at Jimmy John's for a quick sub that I eat while at the meeting. So it's nice to know that I can still have a evening to do something after a run and a shower!

Speaking of my run today, I also decided to take it easy today. I kept telling myself at the beginning to slow it down. I wish I would have worn my heart rate monitor today. It would have been interesting to see it. I'm sure it was pretty low. My breathing was very steady too. This is what happens when you go a normal pace and not overly stress yourself!!

Wednesday I have to skip my run though. I have to head up to Rockford to look at shoes and frames. Yes, yes, more frames. We'll get to that in a bit.
First the shoes: I have 273 miles on my current shoes (11.5 narrow width Nike Moto+ 6). So in another 75 miles (usually 300-400 miles), I'll have to get new ones. And that will be in the middle of my training. So I might as well look and buy a pair now to work them in. Now they have released a new version of the Moto+ and so the 6's are now on sale. But I've done a search on websites to see if I could buy a pair online but I'm not seeing that size option AT ALL. No surprise right? So I'm going to head to the local shoe store that I bought them from and see if they can still order them in that size. I'm hoping that it's going to be on sale there too. And I'm also hoping that they are not going to try to get me to buy the Moto+ 7 as I really don't want to buy new new shoes right now.

Frame: So I took the individual frames from my half marathon and 1st marathon and decided to join them together to make one big frame. I like the look of it better. I bought a 9x20 frame but unfortunately there is no way that I can squeeze 3 items into a 20". It was as shadow box too. I really wanted a 30" frame but can't find those yet. So then when a friend gave me his poster frame, I decided to cut it up and try to make it work. And work I did! But I also cut up my hands a bit. :-) And since my medal is hanging in it, it kinda sticks out a bit. But I'm going to head up to Hobby Lobby to see if they have a 30" frame that will work. I found a 36" frame but that's just too long, I didn't like it. So back to square one. If I don't find a 30" frame at Hobby Lobby then I'm going to take a Walmart Poster frame and cut it up like I did last time. Hopefully it won't look bad.



While there I'm also gonna hit up Old Chicago. Gotta man! I haven't eaten there in a long while!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 854 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/08/09 Up/Downhill: [+160/-160] Time: 04:57 PM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 76 F temp; 71% humidity 78 F heat index; winds W 16 G 23 Performance Distance: 3.16 miles Time: 0:29:19 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 17 /mi Calories: 336 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 23 +0' 06 6.4 -0.1 +23 ft 2 9' 35 +0' 18 6.3 -0.2 -10 ft 3 8' 58 -0' 19 6.7 +0.2 -16 ft end 8' 27 -0' 50 7.1 +0.6 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 17 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: Lakefront Marathon, memorabilia, shoes, TOMRV

Just a normal Saturday run

I went for a 60 minute run on Saturday morning. Nothing really great to report from it. A late start but I allowed myself to sleep in a little. I had Phil with me and decided to hit up every single cul de sac on my normal route to see what added mileage that would give me. Come to find out, it's just over 6.2 miles.

But now that summer is here (kinda) I need to remember to bring water with me on any runs longer than 3 miles or 30 minutes. I was so parched by the end of the run, I was getting those white things in the corners of my mouth. Yuck. But I'm glad that I managed to go that far. Although I did pause a lot in the second half of it but I did have a full week off.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 858 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/06/09 Up/Downhill: [+193/-193] Time: 09:08 AM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 62 F temp; 69% humidity 62 F heat index; winds E 6 Performance Distance: 6.32 miles Time: 0:59:56 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 29 /mi Heart Rate: 168 bpm (Avg) Calories: 671 192 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 48 -0' 41 6.8 +0.5 166 +26 ft 2 9' 01 -0' 28 6.7 +0.3 169 -16 ft 3 9' 29 +0' 00 6.3 -0.0 167 +3 ft 4 10' 23 +0' 54 5.8 -0.6 181 +9 ft 5 10' 08 +0' 39 5.9 -0.4 148 +7 ft 6 11' 12 +1' 43 5.3 -1.0 178 -26 ft end 9' 45 +0' 16 6.2 -0.2 182 -3 ft Versus average of 9' 29 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 6 miles, DeKalb Nature Trail, Lakefront Marathon

Take It and Run Thursday: Relays, Ultras and Tri's, Oh My!

I'm writing my first Take It and Run Thursday blog! Woo!!! Today's theme is Relay's, Ultras and Tri's. Which is perfect since I was going to write about my first triathlon. :-)

Relays:
There's only 2 relay's that I would like to do. First is the River to River Relay in southern Illinois. It goes from Mississippi River to the Ohio River across the Shawnee National Forest. Our fmr governor Blagojevich ran it one year. It takes place around the middle of April. Stats are as follows:

Teams of eight runners compete on an 80-mile course. Each runner completes three sections that range in length from 2.5 to 4 miles. Teams are started in groups every 30 minutes beginning at 6:15am and continuing until the last group is started at 8:45am. The finish line closes at exactly 8:00pm.

There's another one called the Bourbon Chase in Kentucky. This is a weekend/overnight event so it's a big longer. I doubt I'll ever be able to do this. But it's still an interesting thought! Info:

The Bourbon Chase will take place October 9-10, 2009, with the starting times staggered based upon each team's estimated finish time. Beginning near the Jim Beam American Outpost & Homestead, the first flight of teams will start the 200 mile course at 8am. During the next 12 hours, every 15 minutes a new set of teams will begin their overnight journey through the Bluegrass State. Teams are made up of 6 or 12 person teams. Each member of the team will run three legs over distances varying from 3 – 7 miles. Each team will provide two support vans to drop off and pick up runners at designated exchange points along the 200-mile route.

Ultras:
On Twitter someone completed a 50k in 6 hours and 13 minutes on May 30th. After reading all the talk back and forth about 50k, I decided that in my 31st year of birth (2011) I'll run a 50k! Which is 31 miles. Sounds perfect to me right!

There are two options for me to run. Chicago Lakefront 50k at the end of October or the Rock Cut Hobo Run 10k, 25k and 50k (pdf) in September. I already plan on doing the 10k and 25k run in September of this year. The 10k is on Friday night, the 25k on Saturday and the 50k on Sunday. I'll probably go for the Hobo Run because it's in Rockford and it's a trail run. Sounds like fun!!! Plus, I can walk and not feel bad. :-)

Tris:
I've always thought about doing one. Nothing big or long, just a sprint tri. I knew of one called HRMS in August that was not that far away from me in Naperville, IL. This was a definite doable race. And had decided on trying it in 2010.

But then I received an email from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) stating that OCRF is the Official Charity of the US Women's Triathlon Series. Then they went on to mention that they have a triathlon on June 14 in Naperville, IL!! When I clicked on the link to take me to their website, I found out that this is a Sprint Tri! Sprint Competition - 750m swim - 22.8k (14.1mi) bike - 5k run. Awesome! So I can raise money for Ovarian Cancer and some of you may know how it's important to me! So I think I'll be doing that next June! Problem is... how do I train for a tri during the spring?? But now it's time to start looking for a triathlon suit and a swimming cap.

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So in a similar thought of the triathlon, I found a pretty easy way of getting a 'brick' workout in. I found a 10.5 mile bike ride route that starts from my house so that when I get back, I can go out for a run immediately afterwards!

Today I did this ride. I got all dressed for my ride and then I realise that I don't have my helmet! I left it in Kevin's car back on Memorial Day but hadn't received it yet in the mail. Come to find out he mailed it out yesterday. But I decided to go out and ride anyway. DON'T EVER DO THAT! I'm gonna head out tonight to buy a new one so I can go on my ride on Sunday.

I dressed too warmly for today though. I had my winter running pants on over biking shorts and a lightweight rain jacket on. I warmed up on both top and bottom. But it was a fun ride nonetheless. I even wore my Garmin! Just to see how it would be out on TOMRV next weekend. So here are my stats from the bike ride.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 889 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/04/09 Up/Downhill: [+190/-190] Time: 05:30 PM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0 Weather: Fair with Haze 68 F temp; 17% humidity 68 F heat index; winds N 5 Performance Distance: 10.41 miles Time: 0:44:48 Speed: 13.9 mph Pace: 4' 19 /mi Calories: 472 Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph)

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: biking, DeKalb/Sycamore Trail, relay, sprint tri, Take It and Run Thursday, triathlon, ultra

National Running Day

So yesterday was National Running Day. It was announced all over the place. Twitter was all a-tweet over it. But I didn't run. 

OK, so you may call me lazy. That's fine. And it might be true. I haven't ran all week long. But there are times when you just don't _feel_ like running and you need a mental & physical break. It was this week for me. 

While the weather was fantastic; clear skies, warm sun, cool shade, low 60's, I just couldn't bring myself to put on shorts and shoes and go running. I just didn't feel like getting sweaty. Which is odd since I usually love to know that I got all sweaty and deserved it. If that makes any sense at all.

Anyway, I'll go out for a run on Saturday morning. Though the weather won't be as great. Supposed to be all rainy and the like. There's a bike ride on Sunday morning. I didn't register beforehand (cause I forgot about the deadline) but now I'm glad cause if it's cold and rainy, I ain't going. The following weekend is TOMRV in Iowa. Oh how I miss Iowa. Hopefully it'll warm up before then! This weather is really getting to me. I want it in the 70's & maybe 80's.

Categories: biking, National Running Day