I headed out at 2:00.  The skies were slightly overcast, but precipitation free.  I was cruising along when I got stopped by a train on Wealthy street.  There is NEVER a train at this time – or at least there has never been a train at this time the other dozen times I have done this route.  I got there just as the train was starting through the intersection and it was a long train.  I sat for more than 5 minutes waiting for it pass. 

When the end was in sight, I put my helmet back on, clipped in and was ready to go when the gates went up.  I took off over the tracks only to have my water bottle fly out of the cage.  This has NEVER happened to me before.  Seeing a pattern yet?  So, there goes my water bottle skidding across the pavement.  I pull off into the first driveway and look back to find that I have managed to stop traffic once again.  Two cars (one in each direction), stopped for me so that I could retrieve the water bottle before it was flattened.  Whoever you two mystery people are, “Thank you very much!”  I am sure they were just as annoyed by the train and with traffic already backed up, they probably didn’t want to stop and hold up traffic any longer.  Question.  Do water bottle cages stretch out over time?  Once I got my water bottle back in, it seemed like they were looser than normal, but I may have just been paranoid at that point.

So, after the delay of the train and water bottle debacle, I was back on my way.  Or so I thought.  I proceeded to get stuck behind a pickup truck towing a car.  It was going so slow that I couldn’t get into a decent pace, but just fast enough that it probably would have been unsafe to try and pass it.  Finally, after a mile or so, I finally had open road.

I let loose on the O’Brien street hills, flying up the inclines with the energy I saved behind the slow moving traffic.  I thought I was in the clear.  Not so, I guess.

When I got to Wilson (the county border), I felt a couple rain drops.  I guess 10% was turning into 100%.  I figured that if I could make it to 40th avenue (another 5 miles) before the rain got any worse, I would be in the clear because after that it is all pretty much flat.  However, after only a mile, the rain started to pick up.  At that point, I felt my phone buzzing in back pocket. Crap.  I pulled off the road and checked it.  Work emergency.  Lovely.  Thankfully, I was able to get a hold of a co-worker who was able to advert the crisis for me.  By the time I had work all straightened out, the rain was picking up.  At this point, I was so pissed at my bad luck that I was determined to finish the ride.  No turning back now.

I got back on the road and started flying.  I threw my bike in the big gear and started mashing away.  After a couple miles, I looked down and realized that I had averaged 23-24 mph over 3 miles.  Yikes!  I realized that I had to pull back a bit not only so I didn’t burn out, but also because by that point it was pouring and the road was getting slick.  The next few miles were in the 19-20 mph range which was probably a bit safer for the conditions. 

While it was pouring, I looked down and noticed that my tights were foaming.  Interesting.  Backing up a bit.  This morning, I hand washed my tights and threw them in the dryer in preparation for the ride.  Apparently, I didn’t rinse them enough and now I was foaming.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad and with enough rain, they seemed to fully rinse out.

At last, nearly 20 miles into my ride, the rain started to let up and my luck started to improve.  I made it the rest of the way without incident – other than getting filthy dirty.  Green Lightening and I were completely covered from head to toe, front wheel, to back.  I gave up on drinking from my water bottle.  For some reason, this didn’t look very appetizing:

By the time I made it to Grand Haven, I was soaking wet and filthy.  When all was said and done, I had a pretty good ride.  My time spent riding was 1:44:35 although it was more like 2 hours including the time I had to stop for the 36.27 miles.  I averaged 20.8 mph over the ride, but had the wind at my back nearly the entire time which obviously helps a bit.

Jennie shot a couple pictures of me to capture the dirt. 

I should have grabbed a a picture of my backside too.  I had a skunk from seat to neck – it was impressive.  When I got home, I threw all my clothes in a bucket of soapy water.  However, I will be shocked if my bike jersey is ever white again.  If it does whiten up, I could do a commercial for our laundry detergent.  After showering, I had to hose off Green Lightening – again.  It seems like I am washing it after almost every ride these days.

Oh well, I survived and in the end had a good ride and experience I won’t forget.  All part of the training I guess!

In case you lost track, here is a summary of the events from the first half of my bike ride.

#1 Dogs Walking Their Owners

I am a dog person.  I have nothing against dogs.  I like dogs.  But it bugs the hell out of me when someone is out letting their dog walk them. The dog is walking wherever they want and the owner has no control over them.  I’m more afraid of the leash than the dog.  All it takes is the owner not paying attention and the dog to switch sides of the sidewalk and you have yourself a readymade trip hazard.  Today, my favorite was a woman standing in the middle of the sidewalk while her two English bulldogs were each standing on opposite sides of the sidewalk inspecting the bushes.  The only way around her (without trudging through the mud) was to jump in the street.  Ugh.

#2 Large Groups of Teenage Girls

Ever notice the smell when running past a group of teenage girls?  It is worse than walking past The Body Shop.  I think I would rather run behind a car puffing out exhaust fumes.  Yuck!

#3 Unnecessary Bike Paths

The lake that I run around (Reeds Lake) is in the process of adding a bike path around a portion of it.  To do this, they are tearing out a couple hundred trees and relocating wetlands.  It is totally unnecessary.  The entire road around the lake is a 25 mph residential road with wide shoulders on both sides of the road.  Not only that, but it is very lightly traveled.  On my run today, I only saw 5 cars during the 5+ miles I was on Reeds Lake Blvd.  During the portion of the run that was alongside where the bike path is going, I didn’t see a single car.  Another problem with the bike path is that they don’t plow the path in the winter.  So, as soon as we get snow again, everyone ends up walking on the shoulder any ways.

Ok, I am done ranting now.  I will get off my soapbox.

On a positive note, I set a new best time for my 8 mile course.  1:00:36 for 8.04 miles.  I am getting closer and closer to getting under the 1 hour mark.  My fastest previous time for the course was 1:00:50 back in November.  So, despite my pet peeves, I had a pretty good run.

Old Man Winter, I would formally like to give you a swift kick in the ass and a hearty “Goodbye”.

I changed things up a bit for my run today and did one big loop rather than lots of smaller loops.  I generally do smaller loops without going too far from home.  It gets boring seeing the same things over and over again, so I decided to do a route I have never done.  It ended up being a great run.  Nearly half of it was on a paved trail or on country roads with little to no traffic.  Very peaceful.  I ran for as long as I could without looking at my watch because I didn’t want to know how far I had gone.  I had a general idea of my distance though because the main roads are all a mile apart and I could count them off in my head as I passed them (44th street, 52nd street, 60th, street… 84th street).

I didn’t look at my watch until well after the turn around point.  I was running low on Gatorade so I stopped at the grocery store to fill up at the drinking fountain using a single serving Gatorade powder package. As I left the store, I broke down and looked at my watch.  17 miles.  YAY!!!! I thought I was only going to be at 15 or so.  17 was a blessing.  I picked up the pace a bit for the next mile.  And then I hit a hill which kicked me in the face a bit and slowed me right back down.

As I hit the driveway, my watched beeped over for 21 miles.  I was very happy to be done.  The run turned out to be hillier than I expected, but I felt strong throughout.

After the run, I took a snow bath and downed a box of Mac and Cheese to refuel before starting my work day at noon.  I made sure to get up and walk around the house every half hour or so to make sure my legs didn’t tighten up too much.

After dinner, I headed up to the pool for open swim.  I figured that the swim would be good recovery for my legs as long as I didn’t push it too hard.  When I got to the pool, it was a ghost town.  I thought that I had the time wrong or something.  Turns out, I was the only person who showed up.  I had the pool to myself for almost a half hour before two other guys showed up.

For my workout, I did:

1 x 500
1 x 400 Pull
1 x 300
1 x 200 Pull
2 x 100 Kick w/ fins
1 x 200
1 x 300 Pull
1 x 400
(1 x 500 Pull Skipped)
2500 yards total

I really wanted to do the last 500 yards to get to a full 3000 yards, but my calves were starting to cramp up and I didn’t want to push it.  It was a very casual swim and I didn’t even time myself.  I just wanted to get the distance in and stay comfortable, so no sense cramping up.

Not sure what the rest of the weekend will bring, but I’m hoping to get in at least one outdoor bike ride if the weather cooperates and another run.

Now, it is time to relax and enjoy a beer (or two).

Time to look back before we can look forward though.

Last Week

I have thoroughly enjoyed this past week.  It was a light week and I got to rest my legs a bit.  I spent some extra time on the bike and doing core workouts.  I did my first “21” workout yesterday.  I found this work on Steve In a Speedo’s blog and it starts with 20 pushups and 1 crunch, followed by 19 pushups and 2 crunches, etc until you hit 1 pushup and 20 crunches.  In the end, it is 210 pushups and 210 crunches.  I took it nice and easy my first time through because I wasn’t sure if I would make it through.  Nevertheless, my arms were a bit rubbery today during my swim.  Next time, I will try and speed it up by taking shorter breaks between sets.

Last Month

Overall, I had a good month numbers wise despite it being a short month.  At the end of January, my goal was to spend more time biking this month and I met that goal.  Last month, I did 7 rides for 8 hours, 20 minutes.  This month, I knocked out 10 rides for 13 hours 23 minutes.  Not only that, but I was able to do my first outdoor ride to Grand Haven.  My running and swimming were a bit off from last month, but that is mainly because of two scheduled light weeks.  I also did about 10 strength workouts throughout the month.  I say “about 10” because I still haven’t found a great way of keeping track of these workouts – Sporttracks just isn’t doing it for me.

As for this month, more of the same.  I have one more long run this week – 22-23 miles.  After that, the taper begins for my marathon.  I took the final step yesterday and actually registered for the race.  Yeah, I know, I like to procrastinate.  I had until the 9th before the price went up so I figured I would wait until the bitter end to make sure my training was going as planned.

One last note.  I emailed the Honolulu Marathon race director to find out when the 2010 date was going to be (the website still has 2009 info).  December 12th is the date.  It looks like we have some planning to do now! YAY!

I started the session with 1:15 on the bike at a consistent, steady pace. I watched part of Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World to kill the time.  Absolutely fascinating.  It made the time fly by.  I am going to have to schedule more from the series for future rides.

After the ride, I hopped on the treadmill for 20 minutes.  I hate running on the treadmill.  The only reason we actually have a treadmill is because the previous owners left it behind when they moved.  I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually used it.  However, Jennie does get a bit of use out of it.  Nevertheless, it was easier to just go from the trainer to the treadmill rather than get showered up and dried off before trying to go out into the cold and run outside.

Overall, it was a good first brick of the season.  Hopefully it warms up soon so that I can move the training outdoors.

After training and lunch, Jennie and I headed to the West Michigan Brewers Guild Festival at Fifth Third Ballpark.  We got free tickets from a friend’s husband who works in the industry.  The tickets included 15 beer tokens, each redeemable for 3 ounce samples of beers.  They had over 50 microbrewers and 300 varieties of beer available for sampling.  It was a blast.

 
Friends Chris and Noelle – our ticket connection.  Thanks guys!

At first, it was very overwhelming.  Tons of people (around 5,000 tickets sold), beer everywhere, and not knowing where to start.  Chris had lots of good advice on what to try and what to avoid because of his work – such a horrible job working in the beer industry.

We started off at the Mount Pleasant Brewing Co. with a Train Wreck Amber and Coal Stoker’s Blackberry.  The Train Wreck was aptly named; a couple of those and you would be a train wreck.  It was a strong (8% ABV) beer brewed with honey and maple syrup.  The Coal Stoker’s Blackberry was much smoother and just as good.

Throughout the area, they had fire pits setup to warm up by and dry your feet.

After that, we headed to Old Hat Brewery and Grill.

 
Jennifer sampling the Peche Lager from Old Hat Brewery.  It was her favorite of the day. 
I sampled their Dirty Red Milf, which was good as well. 

We continued on to the Old Boys’ Brewhouse for Old Boys’ Brown Ale and then to the Corner Brewery for Michael Faricy’s Irish Stout.  If you know me, you know I’ll never turn down an Irish-style beer.

We made sure to stop by a couple of the breweries that we recognized – namely Hopcot and Rochester Mills Beer Co.  Both are restaurants we have eaten at before (and plan to again), so it was nice to be able to try some of their beers ahead of time to know what we’ll like.  The beer from Rochester Mills was an organic beer, which gave it a unique taste, but that also might have been due to the fact that it was served from the right breast of a bikini clad mannequin.

 
Rochester Mills unique beer delivery system.
I sampled from the right.

After about two hours in the cold, Chris and Noelle shared their VIP passes with us, which allowed us to go inside, sit down, and warm up for a bit.  Once we warmed back up, we made the rounds again and hit a few more breweries.  I had to try Schmohz Brewing Co’s Kiss My Scottish Arse Scotch Ale based on the name alone.  I also tried a beer from The Livery in Benton Harbor.  Benton Harbor is where one of my half Ironman races is going to be this year, so maybe we can visit the restaurant this summer for a post race refueling session.

Jennie isn’t much of a beer drinker (she’ll take a Cosmo over an Ale any day), so I ended up drinking sampling for two at some of the breweries.  As you can see, I was very disappointed about this.

Even if you know nothing about beer (and I know very little), it can be a lot of fun.  If you don’t know what kind of beer you want, just pick it based on name.  Some of the best named beers of the day were: Kiss My Scottish Arse Scotch Ale, “Hands Off My Goat!” Stout, Sage Against the Machine American Pale, Ghettoblaster, Pooh Beer, Kilt Tilter, More Cow Bell IPA, Motha Pucker Dark Sour Ale, and Bees Knees Honey Ale.

Overall, it was a ton of fun and many great beers were had.

The fast 3 miles allowed me to negative split the run with a 31:45 (7:54 pace) on the out and a 30:35 (7:37 pace) on the back.

On top of my great run, I took a step this week to keep myself safe on my long runs and bike rides – I bought a RoadID.  Steve in a Speedo recently posted a 20% coupon code (good until March 15th).  Head on over there if you are interested and give him some love.  The code saved me $6 off the final price.

I ended up going with the WristID Sport model in black.  The website was very easy to use and had a nice customization area to see exactly how your choices would print.  It should arrive on Monday or Tuesday.  I am excited to get it, but I am hoping that I never actually have to use it!

if you are interested.  Thanks Krista!  It makes me feel less guilty for possibly violating copyright by posting a picture of the magazine.

Over the weekend, while at the in-laws, I was flipping through a Rachael Ray magazine (yes, I admit it) and came across this recipe.  It is a vegetable stir fry and it looked mighty good.  I took a picture of the recipe so that I could make it at a later day.

That day was today.  After my swim, I headed to the store to purchase the necessities.  It was an interesting recipe because it included lots of things I have never cooked with before like Tabasco sauce, fresh ginger, bok choy, and black bean sauce.  On top of that, it included lots of fresh veggies so it was guaranteed to be healthy.  I did alter the recipe a bit and sautéed a cut up chicken breast because I thought veggies alone wouldn’t be filling enough.

After I got home, I realized that I forgot to buy the requisite egg rolls.  So, when I headed out for my run later in the afternoon, I stopped by the store again and picked a up few from the deli.  On my run, I ran into Kelly, a friend and former high school XC teammate.  We ran together for a mile or so while she did her cool down.  It was nice to have someone to chat with for a change.

Getting all the ingredients in order.

I did my best to get everything in order before I started so that I wasn’t running around too much once I got started.  I still found myself hurrying to get veggies chopped before the chicken burned and the sauce made before the veggies were over cooked.  It is nice that a stir fry cooks so quickly, but it really keeps you on your toes.

The veggies stir frying.  It is always so pleasing when the food is so colorful.

I stir fried the veggies in my favorite stir fry pan.  It has one side higher than the other to make flipping the veggies easier.  I tried to take a video of myself flipping the veggies.  It didn’t turn out very well and I ended up with a handful on the floor (oops!).  So much for showing how much easier the pan makes it!

The finished product on our new Asian inspired placemats.  How appropriate.

The meal turned out fantastic.  It will definitely be making a reoccurrence in the future.  It was super spicy though.  Maybe we’ll cut back on the Tabasco sauce next time.  We ended up going through an entire 2 quart pitcher of Crystal Light just to keep our mouths from starting on fire.

Enjoying the meal – and realizing that I really need a haircut.  Yikes!

After a couple minutes though, I noticed a funky smell.  And no, it wasn’t me.  I stopped and found that my rear tire was really hot.  I realized that I was literally burning rubber.  Whoops!

I loosened up the resistance a bit to where it normally is and finished up my ride.

I did 70 minutes with 9×1min at Z5 with 2 min active recovery between intervals.  It was a great workout and I really felt like I was pushing it hard on my intervals.

Now, it is time to continue watching The Office and hopefully doing a bit of stretching and core workout.

Friday was my long run for the week.  Only 14 miles scheduled after 21 the week before.  Despite the shorter distance, it was a really tough run.  My legs were really beat up from my bike ride on Thursday.  On top of that, I was having acid reflux problems for nearly the entire run.  Very unpleasant.

In the end, I only made it 13 miles.  Part of it was exhaustion, part of it was poor distance estimating.  I thought that my final loop would get me up to 14 miles, but alas, I looked at my watch as I turned on the road home and was only at 13 miles.  I was too tired to even consider adding on an extra mile at that point.

After the run, I was still getting that acidy burning feeling in the back of my throat.  After a quick Google search, I found a couple potential remedies.  I tried what looked like the easiest solution – chewing gum – and it worked like a charm.  Within minutes, I was better.  I couldn’t believe it.  I may have to pack some gum for my next long run.

I finished off Friday with a 1950 yard swim in the evening.  Yes, I spend my Friday nights at the pool.  Exciting, I know.  I had a record swim, but more on that later.  I am hoping to devote a whole post to swim-related activities.

Saturday

I got a quick strength session in on Saturday morning before we packed up and headed across the state to the in-laws.  We have been wanting to see one of my bro-in-law’s basketball games, but they are normally during the week, so that doesn’t work.  He had a basketball tournament this weekend though, so we were able to catch 2 games. (They won both and the tournament.)

On top of that, I helped my father-in-law mount their new 50” plasma TV above their fireplace.  We still have some more work to do to hide the wires, but that will wait until the next trip.  Always fun to do projects.

Sunday

We got home late Sunday evening, so I had a late evening run ahead of me.  I didn’t start until after 9:00, so I donned my head lamp and reflective gear and headed out.  It felt great to stretch the legs out after a couple hours in the car.

Monday

Well, we got snow again – surprise, surprise. I spent a good part of the day shoveling the heavy wet snow.  It made for a pretty good cross training workout on my day off from running.  However, it is getting to the point where I don’t have anywhere to put the snow.  The piles at the end of the driveway are over my head, so I have had to start shoveling the snow down the street before I can pile it up in the front yard.  When is spring?

So, there you have it.  My weekend in review.

This week should be a bit easier as it is a recovery week.  A much needed recovery week.  Hopefully that means I will have more time to keep this blog updated so I don’t have to keep doing extended summaries.

Stay tuned!