Gary's Road to Ironman

My friend Gary leaves today to compete in Ironman Louisville on Sunday. I made this little video showing some of his training and races this past year. We gave him a surprise dinner last night to see him off. He is so nervous but he is quite the athlete and should have no problems completing the 140.6 miles.

Good luck Gary!

Endurance

Me and running are not happy together.

This morning I ran 2.7 miles, foot and legs felt great but I could barely run 1/2 a mile without having to walk. I had an 11:02 average pace, almost as slow as when i started running in 2006.

After 9 weeks of less than 10 miles running per week I feel like I have lost my endurance. I can ride a bike hard for 50-100 miles so how come running is being this difficult?

Trying not to kick her to the curb.

Milestones

I hit a new milestone over the weekend.

Total bike miles year to date are 1030. Thats the most miles I have ever done in a year so far and its still early.

I went from 8 minute miles running to 11 minute miles. Thats a bad milestone I'd rather not record.

98.1 Part 2

Sunday:

We met at the school at 9am. There were two groups, Gary, Rock and me then Annette, Brenda, Vicki and Michele. We were doing 50 and the others were going to do maybe 25.

Annette and Michele

The two groups went our separate ways, us heading out highway 89 towards I-40 and on to Keo. We decided right off that Gary wasn't pulling and that Rock and I was going to do all the work. Well, Rock started out and we drafted behind her. Let me tell you, that girl has gotten strong on the bike! She had no problem pulling us around. I would look down and we would be doing 20-24mph. We had wind, and there was a lot of cross wind too. It really didn't feel like a tail wind but we had to be getting some anyway. I pulled a few times but Rock was such a workhorse and I think she liked leading. Most of the time I never even got out of zone 3, sometimes very low zone 4. It was just a little faster than relaxed pace for sure. More like a tempo ride I suppose. Rock and I kept thinking, wow, we are getting stronger being able to do 20+ mph for this long. We hit a 20 average before we passed the store at Furlow and maintained that all the way to Keo. We stopped one time under a tree to eat and rehydrate good. It was getting pretty warm at that point and we were sweating a lot.

Gary and me

When we hit the 25 mile turn around at Keo our world changed. All that time we thought we had a cross wind, in reality it was more of a tail wind. When we turned around we could barely go 15mph. We had one of the worst head winds I have ever encountered. It must have been 25mph wind hitting us dead on. To make matters worse, we were in farm country and there were no trees to block the wind. I saw my heart rate jump up in upper zone 4 just trying to maintain 15 mph. How could it be that different?? Well, the wind is an enemy on the bike and it was going to test us today.

Gary and Rock

Rock is training for her 1st 100 miler, The Big Dam Bridge 100 and I told her things were going to be tough for a while now. This is how it feels the last 25 miles of a 100 miler. We stopped again at the tree to rehydrate and make sure everyone had electrolytes. What was a fun 25 miles going out was going to be a test of mental endurance going back. We would hit some tree lines here and there where our speed would pick up to 16-17 but most of the time we were just stuck around 15 and working hard to do that. I eventually had to go down to my small ring just so I wouldn't have to push a bigger gear. It was tough.

I pulled some and sometimes we would just be fighting it on our own but we always stayed pretty close. When we climbed the hill for the bridge over I40 Rock had to stop. She said she thought she was going to be sick. She hadn't been drinking enough and I think the hill there had just gotten the last ounce of energy she had. After a couple minutes she was feeling better and we decided that we would stop at the store at Furlow to get more and cold water as we were all pretty much out.

A couple miles later we pulled into the store. When we went in to get water they told us they didn't have any power so they couldn't sell us anything. Well, I went back in and asked "how about I give you $10 for 3 bottles of water." "Nope, we have no power we can't sell anything." WTF? Why could they not give us a bottle of water? Well, we came up with our own plan. We found an outside water faucet and filled our bottles. Then we saw the ice machine so we just got a bag of ice and filled our bottles. We figured they could call the police on us if they wanted. We were needing water bad and they didn't even offer the outside faucet.

Well, the break must have got Rock feeling better because she took off with Gary in tow. I struggled all the way back. Not sure why, probably because I had done 45 hard miles on Saturday and my legs were just toast. We did have some downhills going back into town but also several uphills which just killed my quads. Our speed picked up since there was now some trees to help block some of the wind. Still a 16-17mph pace was all I could pull out. I was ready to be done. That relentless wind just wears you down and for 25 miles it sucks!

We finished off with 50 miles, and still even with the wind had just over a 17mph average pace. Not too bad I suppose. I burnt another 3101 calories and had a 158 average heart rate. I did feel good about maintaining a 20mph average for 25 miles. Our splits were awesome, there were several consecutive miles where we were at 22mph. And through all of this Gary never pulled one time. We had to save his legs for Ironman Louisville this weekend. We still had fun even though it was a test of endurance and mental fortitude.

Just me

98.1

That's how many miles I ran and biked this weekend. Oh yeah, we even added some adventure race training in.

Saturday - 3.1 mile run - 45 mile bike - multiple flights of stairs carrying the bike
Sunday - 50 mile bike

Yes, my legs are trashed, but not that bad. No, I do not want to bike tomorrow!!

Saturday:
Annette and I loaded up the bikes and headed down to the River Trail for some running and biking. There was a large group of cruiser going to be there. My goal was just to run about 3 miles, then bike till 8am, meet the group for breakfast and bike some more. Annette was running like 10 miles then biking after breakfast.

The run started at 6am with a big group and too many people to mention. James (Iron James) and Cindy C. were only going to run short also. We planned on biking before the others got back. Cindy stopped around 2 miles because of her foot. She has PF too but a more severe case. And James ran with me to the 1.5 mile mark where we turned around. Gary and Rock were doing a fast 8-10 miles so we were going to meet them to bike till Gary had to go to work at 9am.

Dennis, Vicki, Kelly, Annette starting the run

The run was ok, I was slow, had a 34:22 time for a 5k slow run but it was probably 90% humidity. Since I had only ran about 3 miles a week for the past few weeks I guess it wasn't bad. Cindy said she felt the humidity too. So we did take a couple walk breaks.

Annette, Bailey, Kelly

After we got back to the parking lots we were dripping with sweat. Got the bikes unloaded and took off towards the bridge. Starting out we just went a fairly easy pace. Around the golf course we ran into Rock and Gary coming back so we turned around to meet them to get their bikes. Well, it didn't take them long to get back as they are fast runners. Gary is doing Ironman Louisville this coming weekend.

After they got to the skate park they unloaded and we admired Gary's new Tri Bike. It is a Gray. Never heard of that brand before so I think it is a custom made ride. Gary got a good deal on it, not sure if it is new or used. Anyway, this was going to be his first ride on it so he knew there would need to be some adjusting as we rode. By the way, he is not taking it to Louisville. He trained on his road bike so that's what he is taking.

Gary and his new Gray Tri Bike with Rock

After starting out we road fairly easy. Had to stop and adjust Gary's seat. Then we started picking up the speed some. Not too bad. we went across the Big Dam Bridge and headed out Rebsamen. We picked the pace up here and we were doing 20 with no problem. It was getting close to 8am so we figured we better call Annette and let them know that we would just meet them at the River Market. When I got her she said they were not even back yet so we figured we would just head back to the skate park since Gary needed to get to work anyway. I made the comment to Gary, "take off and lets see if we can chase you down on that new bike". Wrong thing to say to him. Before I knew it he was gone. Rock was latched on to his draft but James, Cindy and I were like sitting still even though we were moving. James sprinted out to catch them. I tried but it was no contest. I just rode as hard as I could and Cindy did the same. We drafted each other a few times trying to catch them. I looked down at my speedometer and I was going 24mph and they were leaving us like we were sitting still. Man, that tri bike is fast!

Rock and me on the phone calling Annette

James taking a breather from our hammer fest

This went on all the way back to the skate park. Cindy and I never caught them, even though we continued to ride 20mph+ on the trail most of the time. Let me tell you, it was a good workout! When we made it back the others were just unloading their bikes for the ride to the Rivermarket for breakfast. Gary had to get to work and Rock had to get home so James, Cindy and I headed out with the group towards North Little Rock. When we got to the new pedestrian bridge Vicki told us that we would have to carry our bikes up the stairs to the bridge. No problem, about two stories worth of stairs and we were riding across the river. Then we had to go up probably 4 flights of stairs to get to the next level. Ok, this was not fun anymore. Not good for my foot either. When we got to the next level we got to ride a little more then we had to go down about 4 flights of stairs. I kidded everyone asking where we were going to rappel at. This was like doing an adventure race! We did finally get done with the bridge and no one was interested in going back across that way so the plan was to ride to the Big Dam Bridge on the Little Rock side after breakfast.

We were all hungry at this point. I think our group had dwindled down to Vicki, Lisa(Tri Lisa), Bailey, Jackie, Annette, Cindy, James and me. Robert and Kelly drove over to meet us since they didn't have bikes. We had a nice breakfast, then it started raining while we were sitting outside. Finally it was time to ride again. The rain had stopped and Coreen and another man that I don't know his name was going to escort us a back way out of the River Market to the BDB. The route worked great, we rode down by the river, under Main and Broadway street bridges and then turned back onto Markham by the police station. This kept us away from the traffic and trolley tracks. Trolley tracks and bikes do not mix!

Had a lot of stop and go with red lights and stop signs until we made it back to Riverfront Drive. James said lets play when we get there. We would go out hard again all the way to 430 then turn around. By the time we do that the others should just about be at the bridge. We tried to get some others to join us but only Bailey would take the bait. So the next hammerfest crew consisted of James, Cindy, Bailey, and me. James and Cindy took off, I held their wheels with Bailey in behind me. It was another hard effort. 20-22mph heading to the bridge. I fell back a little and lost James and Cindy. Bailey hung with me to the bridge and then she dropped. I tried to catch James and Cindy but they must have been trying to kill each other! We were having fun though! I finally got back with them at the first turn around heading towards 430. We hammered back to the BDB and again they left me. No big deal, sometimes its the other way around. When we got to the bridge the others had just gotten there. Next thing you know it was on again. Cindy and James chasing each other down. I hung with them up the bridge and then got stuck in some traffic and never caught back up. When I got almost to the golf course here comes Cindy back. She said James was heading home. I kidded her saying "yeah, he couldn't take anymore". I think both of them were pretty tired at that point.

We headed back towards the soccer fields to catch the others and then I saw them turn into them. Vicki had said they were going up the hill at the soccer fields and then across the freeway and back. We hammered trying to catch up and not being sure their exact route were looking for them. The I saw some of them stopped at the top of the hill. "Dang, we have to go up that?" Its a short hill going out of the soccer field into Burns Park but its almost straight up. I had no problem making it up, picked the right gear and went right up. i did have to stand up for this one though. Cindy had a little trouble as she missed a gear or something. Then it was off and around the loop with the group. By this time I was ready to ride easy. I had probably 35 miles but I knew more pain was ahead. We had several hills to climb before making it back to the golf course. I went right up the long hard one, then dumb me, I made a right turn after crossing the interstate. Being ahead of everyone else I thought they were going this way then I heard them yelling at me that it was the wrong way. So, I had to turn around and try to catch back up. I had to expend more effort again catching up. They just came down a downhill and I had to go back up to catch them. Half a mile up the road I did. We stopped to regroup and wait for some of the others who had slowed down. Cindy was taking it easy at this point, chatting with the girls. Annette was doing great on the bike, and I think at times was probably leading the others.

We headed back across the interstate and towards the golf club house. Then there was a big downhill with a big uphill. Bailey was on my wheel and I just let it rip on this one. I hit 37mph going down and kept the momentum going back up the other side. I barely had to pedal up. That was nice! We finished the ride off with a moderate pace, 16-17 mph. I ended up with 45 miles which was pretty much what my long ride was suppose to be for the weekend. Only problem was, I had told Gary that I would ride with him on Sunday and do 50 more!

I'll blog about that maybe tomorrow!

Saturday stats:
3.1 mile run - 415 calories - 170 average HR
45 mile bike - 2882 calories - 152 average HR

I Run

Sorry for the lack of blogging but not a lot to report. Last week was so busy this week I am just catching my breath again.

I did get my orthotics in Wednesday afternoon. The doctor told me to wear them a couple hours Wednesday, three hours Thursday, add a couple more on Friday, etc until I got used to them. So who's going to listen to that?? I wore them probably five hours Wednesday then 14 yesterday. No problems, no soreness.

So last night I put them to the test. Was going to run a couple miles outside but a storm came up so I tackled the dreadmill. I got a good solid 2 miles running and added .6 walking on to it. Not fast, 10:44 and 10:22 pace but the good thing was, I never wanted to stop. I think I could have ran 5 miles easy. After not getting to run, that 2 miles felt pretty good and it was a relaxed pace. The foot? Well it did pretty good. I could feel a little heel pain but nothing too bad. The orthotics really jack the back of my heel up so that takes a little getting used to. I iced the foot afterwards and this morning I have no pain and can walk so thats a good thing!

The challenge now is to find the best shoe for the orthotics. I am not sure if my Nike Air Structure Triax 10's are the right shoe anymore. I wear Saucony Hurricane 9's most of the time at work and around the house. These feel really comfortable but they seem like they angle my foot a lot to correct for my over-pronation. The orthotics have that built in to them so I may need a more neutral shoe. I still have some Acics GT2120's and they look more neutral so I guess I will just have to experiment. The doctor really didn't have a recommendation other than experiment also.

Tomorrow we have a very large group of Cruisers meeting at the River Trail to run and bike. I plan on running at least 3 miles and then bike up to 50. Have to get some bike miles in for my Big Dam Bridge 100 training. So if your on the River Trail look out, there is a Cruiser Alert being issued.

I am glad to have the orthotics finally. Now I can get back to running, even if it may be slower.
Did I mention I have missed running!

Going All Out

Have you ever had those races where no matter how small the race was or how unimportant it was, you just wanted to win? You decided before hand that you were going to give 110% and see what happens. Saturday was one of those races for me. It was the Guys vs. the Gals 5K and 10 mile bike race for our club. I had no illusion of doing anything other than crossing the finish line in the run, especially with the PF in my foot. But the bike was a different story. I knew that today, I had a shot. Even though a long one at just winning that leg of the race.

The whole Guys vs Gals race is a lot of fun. We started this last year and with a couple months of trash talking had the race. We probably had twice as many people show up last year but there was a Triathlon going on this year which caused a conflict and we had a lot of people out for that. Two of the three guys that I knew I couldn't beat on the bike were there so I knew I had a shot at a good placement if nothing else on the bike. For the run, the guys would be granted a 2 minute head start if they wore a running skirt and the girls a 1 minute head start if they wore one. This made the 5k interesting. When I got to the school for the start I figured most all the guys would have some type of skirt devised up. Nope. Coach Dennis had his wrapped around his head as he said, they didn't say "where" it had to be worn. After the girls picked at him about it he finally put it where it was suppose to be. Duane M. had his on and on back he had written in tape " I need the 2 Minutes". Well, that was my thinking! Robert borrowed and extra that someone had. Phil wore a long skirt which really made everyone laugh. Annette and Jackie have pictures but I hope the evidence gets erased somewhere along the line.

So, at the start of the 5k we had 5 or 6 guys getting a 2 minute head start. I told Josh (who wasn't wearing a skirt and is VERY fast) that this would be my only chance to be ahead of him in a race, even if it was only a few minutes. Josh is on the verge of breaking into the 16 minute 5k range. With the PF in my foot, my goal in the 5k was just make it through it, maybe run a 10-10:30 pace. Felt pretty decent at the start. The bad thing I haven't ran a lick in a week so this would be my only run in probably 10 days.

Josh passed me probably less than half a mile into the race. Man that guy is fast! I trudged on, pretty much running a 10-10:15 pace all the way. Endurance wise I felt better than what I expected. I really had no need to walk the whole race though I did take about 20 seconds a couple times just to slow down as I wanted to save it for the bike. My finishing time was 32 something, pretty bad considering I would have ran this in probably 26 something if I had been healthy.

Then it was on to the bike race. This was the fun stuff. My plan was to line up at the front and go out hard and fast, then see how long I could hang on. I figured if I could get a good breakaway at the beginning I could have a shot at winning this thing. The front line found me, Cindy C., Lisa F. and several others. It was pretty packed actually so I was concerned about just getting clipped in and getting going. We had an uphill start also right next to the stadium. It probably wasn't the best route especially since we didn't have any traffic control.

The race started and I went out standing up and pushing up the hill. I was all alone. As I looked back in my mirror I could see I blasted out pretty good. Had to slow down at the first intersection to check for on coming cars, I was good and took off down East Main. This was a hilly but fast road. I immediately dropped to my aero bars to gain all the speed I could. My quads started screaming at me early when I hit the hills. I kept watching my mirror and could see a small group of bikes working to catch me but they still had a ways to go. I knew that several working together could catch me pretty fast but there were hills they had to contend with. I made the right turn on to Stagecoach and kept hammering. A big incline here slowed me down and the pack would gain on me in the flats. I was probably averaging 20+ mph at this point. My quads continued to cry in pain as I pushed hard up the hills. I knew another major intersection was coming up and this was where they would catch me. As I got there, I had to stop for traffic. One guy went right so that he didn't loose momentum and then when the traffic cleared there were 5 of us right together. I figured I would tuck in and ride the draft here for a while and take a rest. I knew these guys had been pushing to catch me. All 5 of us were determined it seemed. The group was me, Cindy C., Bill K., Mark O. and Duane M. All through the ride I thought Duane was James B. because they had the same color bike and wore the same color clothing. James B wasn't even there!

As we made our way down Campground, we jockeyed back and forth for position. Cindy would be in the lead then Mark, then me, then Duane, then Bill. It was each person for themselves at that point but we were smart enough to draft when we weren't in the front. Campground was fast, 32 mph at one point. Then a right on Dogwood. The pace slowed a little here. More hills and more pain. If you missed a gear someone would go right by you. I seemed to have it going good on the hills but I was almost to the point I couldn't stand up anymore. My legs were screaming. I knew the way they felt I was giving it all I had. This was fun though! I was racing with some extremely good bikers and no one was winning at that point. It would have come down to a Tour de France sprint if we had all stayed together. Now that would have been fun!

When we turned on to 321 Mark got ahead of everyone. After the first hill we pretty much dropped Bill so it was me, Cindy and Duane trying to chase down Mark. Duane got ahead of me and Cindy a little so I told her "we have to catch James, we can't let him beat us". I said this as I passed her going uphill and she said something but I didn't hear. I'm sure it was "thats not James!" I wish I had known it was Duane and not James, i would have probably just backed off and settled in but no.....I had to push it even more. After about the second or third hill on 321 I could feel my right calf twitching a little. I started thinking, uh oh, a cramp is coming. I had NEVER had a cramp on the bike. Even in 100 milers, never! Was this little 10 miler going to be my first? I backed off a little, tried to take a drink and wonder what was going on. Two bikes in front of me and I was gaining on Duane. Mark was way ahead at this point. Cindy was pretty close. I turned on to Dietrich in pursuit of Duane and Mark. About a block down Dietrich it started. I felt my right leg starting to cramp up in my calf. I slowed down and Cindy passed me. Another block and I was in a full blown cramp. My right leg was locked up and I tried to stretch it to make it stop. It wouldn't. I tried to pedal and I couldn't the pain was so bad. I stood up in the pedals and tried pointing my toes down and then up. I was just coasting at that point. I could not even move my leg it was cramping so bad. I was thinking I am going to have to stop, get off the bike and lay down or something to stretch it out. I was approaching the intersection of Campground and Dietrich so I knew I would have to stop for traffic. Maybe that would help. I stopped, stretched it and then started across the road just as Bill passed me. I knew I wasn't going to be able to hammer anymore. I looked back in my mirror and only saw two bikes coming so I thought maybe, just maybe I could hold them off and make it in. I'd pedal some and then have to back off and stretch the calf. They were gaining on me at that point. I pushed harder, thinking I can't let them pass me.

I held them off all the way to East Main and there at the intersection with Honeysuckle they pass was made. It was Andrea and Lisa M. Andrea asked me if I was ok as she could see I was in pain. I said yeah, my calf was cramping. As we went up the hill to turn on Bellamy I got a second wind. I was not going to let them pass me that easy. I hammered as hard as my leg would allow, just hoping I could make it in without another painful cramp. I did manage to pass Lisa about halfway down Bellamy and was gaining on Andrea but ran out of race course. I had to settle for a 6th place finish. Not bad but I could have been at least 2nd I think.

After talking to some of the others I found out that Mark had also gotten a cramp towards the end and got passed. I think Duane ended up being first, not sure who was second through 4th. I know Andrea was 5th. It was fun, I had a good race going until the cramp. And I'll have to say, I was giving it 110% up till that point. There is always another race.

Loving the bike!

Want to live a long life? Run

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Mon Aug 11, 4:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running.

A study published on Monday shows middle-aged members of a runner's club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run.

Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers at Stanford University in California found.

"At 19 years, 15 percent of runners had died compared with 34 percent of controls," Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Any type of vigorous exercise will likely do the trick, said Stanford's Dr. James Fries, who worked on the study.

"Both common sense and background science support the idea that there is nothing magical about running per se," Fries said in a telephone interview. "It is the regular physical vigorous activity that is important."

The team surveyed 284 members of a nationwide running club and 156 similar, healthy people as controls. They all came from the university's faculty and staff and had similar social and economic backgrounds, and all were 50 or older.

Starting in 1984, each volunteer filled out an annual survey on exercise frequency, weight and disability for eight activities -- rising, dressing and grooming, hygiene, eating, walking, reach, hand grip and routine physical activities.

Most of the volunteers did some exercise, but runners exercised as much as 200 minutes a week, compared to 20 minutes for the non-runners.

At the beginning, the runners were leaner and less likely to smoke compared with the controls. And they exercised more over the whole study period in general.

"Over time, all groups decreased running activity, but the runners groups continued to accumulate more minutes per week of vigorous activity of all kinds," the researchers wrote.

"Members of the running groups had significantly lower mean disability levels at all time points," they added.

The team also set out to answer whether taking up running late in life would benefit, and whether people who stopped exercising began to pay a price as they aged.

Most of the runners have stopped running as they reached their 70s, Fries said. But it was difficult to find people who totally stopped exercising. "Almost all of them did something else. They continued their vigorous exercise," he said.

People who took up exercise when they were older also improved their health, he said.

The study also showed that people cannot use the risk of injury as an excuse not to run -- the runners had fewer injuries of all kinds, including to their knees.

Rainy Time Trial

After the beautiful day we had on Saturday, wouldn't you know that it would have to change. Arkansas weather always does. After planning this club Time Trial for a few weeks mother nature had to come in and complicate things. When I went to bed last night we had about the worst possible forecast, probably 80% chance of flash flooding for Sunday. So do I call off the TT? Wait and see?? Make a decision Sunday morning?? I finally decided I would wait till when I got up and see what it was like. And at 4:45am, it wasn't raining so I figured the show must go on.

Annette left the house just after 5 to meet Brenda and Bailey to run before the TT. When I started loading the bikes it started sprinkling a little. No biggie. Then as I left the house and turned on to 321, it started pouring. I knew then no one would probably show up, but you never know who the die hards are. I was at the parking lot before 6 and the only cars there were the girls running. Just sprinkling a little then. James B pulled up a little while later, aired his tires and waited in his vehicle. I figured if no one else showed up we would just call it off. The girls came running in about 10 after 6 and we stood under the porch of the Water Company to stay dry. Then right at 6:30 Russ pulls in. He is ready to do it. The rain had slacked off to almost nothing and I told him if he wanted to I would too. The girls had no problem with timing us as they were talking anyway and the 30 minutes or so that we would be gone would fly by to them. James B decided to call it a day and not ride. He didn't want to take a chance on crashing on the wet streets. I wasn't too worried as the route was straight out and straight back. A little water wasn't going to hurt us, though it might slow us down.

We went ahead and got Russ to the line first. The girls yelled go and started his time. I waited 2.5 minutes and took off in pursuit. I figured if I could catch Russ I would be doing good. I had been adjusting my tri bars and had actually gotten them positioned where I liked them better. So my goal was stay aero as much as possible. The bad thing was, neither of us had a warm up before we started. This was not good but we wanted to go before the rain set in for good. From the start I was giving it at least an 80-85% effort. The course had several small rolling hills but these were the kind that looked flat but were just long inclines. I could feel everyone of them in my legs. We thought we might be cold since the temps were about 70 but once I got going good I was sweating.

About two miles out I could see Russ up ahead. I was pleasantly surprised that I must be gaining on him. But could I catch him and make the pass? I let off a few times and got out of the aero bars just to take a quick breather but pretty much hammered all the way. At the turn around point I had to slow to let a car pass my so I lost a few seconds. In the way out there was a little bit of a headwind so I was hoping to catch a tailwind on the way back. No such luck. I kept after it, I could feel the lactic acid building in my legs. My quads were screaming at me but I had to overcome the pain and keep going. Every hill I hit I would try to gain speed or at least maintain it going up. On the small downhills I would try to gain as much speed as I could. I was still gaining on Russ but not fast enough.

As I got closer to the finish I started thinking about when I should give that 110%. Well, it was pretty easy. At about 1 mile out there was a hill to climb, not big but just an incline. Once I hit the top of that it was probably 3/4s of a mile or less to the finish. So when I hit the peak, I gave it everything I had to the finish. I was pretty much in an all out sprint. I stayed seated but I was pushing everything I had left. I looked at my speedo and it showed 26 mph +. I'm sure if there hadn't been water on the pavement it would have been 30+. There was lots of water on the roadway. When I passed the finish I was breathing like I was doing a sprint run so naturally I had to hang my tongue out when I passed the girls like they do in the Tour. I was glad it was over and I was happy with the effort I put out. I almost caught Russ at the finish, missing him by about 25 yards.

My final time: 31:27 for 10.25 miles (just over 16K) and 19.6 mph average. Russ's final time was 33:47 @18.2 mph. I learned a lot on this one and will be better prepared for the next one. It was fun!! With a warm up and no rain I should easily be able to break over 20 next time.

Nice Saturday Morning Bike

Had a great early morning bike ride with Annette and Bailey. Annette got up and ran 5 miles with Heather at 5am and then the plan was to do an easy bike ride at 6:30. Bailey came over and joined us. The temperature was almost cold for a change. It was cool crisp air which was really nice. Only took a couple miles to warm up and then once the sun came up it increased the humidity. Still wasn't bad. We did sort of an out and back route, South First to Kerr, Kerr to Gun Club, back on 89 to Pickthorne then back to Kerr and to South First. We never hammered much, I wanted to save my legs for the time trial on Sunday.

We rode on to Sonic and met Brenda and a bunch of the other Cruisers there for breakfast. They had all been running. It was nice riding to breakfast! And considering I burnt 1228 calories I probably didn't eat enough.

Finished the day with mowing, weed eating, cleaning the pool, watching some of the olympics and working a bad vehicle accident with the FD on TP White. I'm worried about the Time Trial tomorrow now, looks like the weather may not cooperate. I guess if its too bad we will have to reschedule.

Blah Blogging

This has been a pretty blah week so far. Not much to blog about. The girls all made it back from SF yesterday which was good. Monday night was a crash night for me, wore out from the weekend and the pile of paperwork I had at the shop. Then when I looked at Annette's desk it was even more. I sometimes feel like I am drowning in paper. If not that its things on the calendar to do.

Tuesday night was Fire Department training and we had to review what we had done in the classes over the weekend. We spent two hours talking about the formula for figuring friction loss in fire hose. Oh my god....that is so boring and not real world. I'm thinking the whole time, "would someone just burn something so we can get out of here!"

Picked the girls up Wednesday afternoon and Annette was pretty tired and just wanted to eat so we went out and had Mexican. All day today at work I felt like I was in a rut. All those empty spots on my workout calendar puts me in a bad mood. Well, tonight I did make an attempt at running 3 miles. It was a little cooler so the weather wasn't too terrible but my foot hurt the whole run. Very slow, average 11:10 pace. Mostly because I would have to walk to wipe the sweat out of my eyes. I usually wear a hat or bondi band but tonight for whatever reason I didn't so all the sweat from my head went right to my eyes it seemed. I would have still been slow anyway. first mile was a 10:38 and I could have probably averaged that. At least I get to log some running miles for the week now!

Have to get back on the bike and at least get one good workout in before Sunday. Sunday morning we are having a little club time trial so that should be interesting to see how it shakes out. I already have probably 12 bikers committed and a lot more will just show up. The bad thing is I have no idea what I am doing and I am the one putting this together! It should work out fine though.

San Francisco Marathon

Well its now history and the girls all had a great race. This was Baileys first marathon and they said at around mile 25, she wasn't ready for it to be over yet she was having so much fun. The four of them ran close together pretty much the whole race and had FUN. Thats what its all about. Wish we could have had the weather temps here like they had there! Congratulations ladies on a job well done!

Here are their final times and a few photos:

Michele 5:11:22
Cheryl 5:14:23
Bailey 5:15:54
Annette 5:15:55

Bailey's mom was crewing for them

Cheryl, Michele and Bailey

Annette, Cheryl, Bailey, Michele - it's actually cool there

San Francisco

Annette along with Bailey, Michele and Cheryl are now in San Francisco preparing for tomorrows San Francisco Marathon. This will be Baileys FIRST marathon! She was so stressed on Wednesday night. We had a small group riding bikes and of course Bailey had to take off then so did I. We ended up talking a lot about her upcoming marathon. She will do great. Just had those first marathon jitters. Annette and Michele are on their 3rd marathon and Cheryl is on her second so at least they do know what to expect. The weather in SF looks great. Nice and cool, especially compared to the 102 degree stuff we have here. The girls are having a great time all the while I am stuck in Fire Department classes all weekend:(

Here are a few photos they sent me:

Michele and Annette



Michele and Annette in SF



Cheryl and Michele


Michele and Annette at the Expo

Chinatown

Cheryl and Annette

Bailey and her Mom



Yes Michele, your butt is fast!