Half Iron!? Almost.

12th Annual

SQUARE LAKE TRIATHLON

Two Fun Days

Two Great Events

Short Course Saturday September 10, 2011

8:00 a.m. Start

0.5 Mile Swim 16.5 Mile Bike 5 Mile Run

Long Course Sunday September 11, 2011

7:30 a.m. Start

1.2 Mile Swim 54 Mile Bike 13.2 Mile Run

I pulled the trigger on registering for my first Half Iron race. It's not actually 70.3 (68.4 to be exact), but I'm not going to split hairs over it. The fact that there is 67 steps from the lake up to T1  should count for something and the course is rolling hills as well.  So the 1.9 mile shortage is not going to bother me one bit.  286 days from today is going to be my "A" race.  However, I've learned not to put too much pressure on myself or set my expectations too high. I plan on doing a few other races and maybe another half marathon before this, but the registration was half priced if I signed up no later than today. The cost was $42.50 and the price sealed the deal. It was nearly 3X less than the LifeTime Fitness Triathlon that I've done the last 2 years. I won't be doing it this year. Although I have really fond memories of the LTF tri's (my first sprint and first Oly), the price is simply too much for this married father of 2. The hoopla and fanfare are cool for first timers and who could put a price on being able to see the number of world class pro's just a few feet away. Last year I oggled Craig Alexander while he set up in transition. I think this year I will be a spectator or volunteer at the LTF tri.  I will keep my eye on a few other races over the next few weeks to see if they offer any good discounts on entry fee's.  I'm already excited for next summer's races, whatever they end up being. 

Thanksgiving in East Dakota

1/4 mile driveway at the in-laws.

So I spent Thanksgiving with the in-laws. Actually we arrived Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Saturday. They live in  west central Minnesota, near the little bump on the western edge of the state.  I affectionately call it East Dakota. To say that they live in the middle of nowhere is an understatement, but that is not really fair because most of the people that live in this area love it and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Of course most of those people can't imagine living in the Twin Cities area where my family and I live.
So here are some pics to give you an idea of what  this part of the world looks like. The top pic is from the end of the driveway looking back towards the house. As you can see, it's quite a

The view south from the end of the driveway

ways and according to my garmin its approximately a 1/4 mile long. The last two pics show the 2 options a person has when leaving, north or south.  Of course what you can't see is the wind.  It is almost always windy and blows from either the west or northwest. So if you are planing on taking a run or a bike ride, you will almost always have a crosswind which is really annoying and mentally exhausting. On top of that, the lack of scenery makes it hard to stay motivated. I did a few of my "long" runs while getting ready for the Chicago marathon and can tell you that those were some of my toughest runs. It's difficult when you can know that you have to run 18 miles and get to the 9th mile and have to turn around, because once you turn

The view north from the end of the driveway

around, you can see almost all the way back to where you started. Actually you can't see quite that far, but from the pics you can see that you can see a long ways. It's almost worse while biking out in this area because you can't (or at least shouldn't) where headphones. Not to mentions the looks that passing cars, tractors, and anyone else that sees you gives. Some people look at you like your not wearing pants and can't understand why a person would want to run anywhere at any time. They will be the first to tell you the only kind of runs they like to do are beers runs.
The food was excellent as always and the kids love to play with their cousins. After a quick tractor ride for my 4 year old on Saturday, we hit the rode for home and made great time as we beat the holiday traffic. Now we are setting up and decorating the christmas tree.
On another note, now is time to set your schedule for next years races as you usually get a good size discount if you sign up in the month of December. I've got a couple in mind, but no serious commitments just yet. More of that to come. A big decision may be made in the next few weeks.

So here is my log book. I keep all kinds of stuff in this mama jama. You can't see from this pic, but I have it labeled with different training plans (Olympic distance, Half Iron, etc.) and different workouts that I've found online. The three colored labels at the top are swim, bike, and run (duh). I never had any background in any of the 3 sports so I didn't have any base knowledge of how to train for a triathlon. So basically I would scour the internet for training plans, workouts, and anything else I thought may be helpful. I would try them out and adjust them to fit me needs. For example; I don't have a gym membership so I don't have regular access to a pool. Instead, I will go to open lap swim at one of the local schools through the community education program. The times are not always the most convenient, so I have work it in between supper, bath time for the girls, trips to the grocery store, work, and any other family obligations that may arise. The open lap swim time is only for 1 hour and the drills need to fit in that timeframe accordingly. I also have running workouts like mile repeats, interval runs, hill repeats, etc. All have been helpful because like I said before, I have no background like cross country or track to know any sort of drills. As for the bike, I haven't worked on a lot of "drills" mainly because my time is limited to my lunch hour and weekends. We recently got a CycleOps Fluid bike trainer, so this winter I plan on getting well acquainted with it. The other stuff in my log book are results pages, weight training plans, core workout plans, and a log of my body weight.
We're off to Grandma and Grandpa's for a holiday weekend, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

New workout plan!

I heard about this new workout and after seeing this South Park video...I gotta say, I'm sold!

Hamstring; which reminds me of ham, which reminds me of bacon, which reminds me of Turkey wrapped in bacon.

Tomorrow marks the 3 week anniversary of not running. I've had a dull pain in my hamstring since last March. It didn't start out as a dull pain however. At some point (I'm not exactly sure how I did it) I pulled or possible tore part of my hamstring. I'm no doctor, but at the time I ruled out a tear as I could still walk (you like my diagnosis!). I rested it for one week and then encorporated some running back into my routine.  I massaged, rubbed, rolled, wrapped, and stretched it, hoping it would help. Well, it did help a little. However, it was never back to 100%, but was better. At the time, I decided I would press on with my training schedule and hope for the best during the summer. In that time I completed 1 duathlon (PR!) and 3 Tri's (Oly PR as it was my first and only).
I could always feel that dull pain in the left hammy and knew it wasn't going away, so I decided 3 weeks ago I would give it the proper rest it deserves. It's been hard to not run because the fall weather the weeks before last week were wonderful. I've stayed true and have been just working on upper body strength and core lately. I've had to look up a lot of different workouts to keep me interested and motivated as lifting weights is not something I've enjoyed doing in the past. I've loosely followed a pushup routine on hundredpushups.com and incorporated different exercises to strengthen my arms, shoulders, chest, and back. I have to admit that I sometimes get bored doing weight training, but it has made me a more disiplined individual. By that I mean that I have to have a "game plan" going in to weight training, whereas in running, I only had a couple of options (sprints, tempo, or easy runs). Most of my "training" takes place during my lunch hour at work, so I don't have a lot of time to think of the workout I'm going to do. I try and have my weekly workouts planned out in advance. Not down to the smallest detail, but at least an idea of the area that I'm going to work on each day (arms, core, chest, etc.). I try and at least work out for 35-40 minutes Monday-Friday and have usually taken the weekends off. That will change once I start "training" for 2011 events and need one of the weekend days for a long run, ride, or swim. Regardless of what sort of workout I do, I keep track of it in my Trapper Keeper. I'll get into that in another post.

26.2

3 or 4 years ago if you would have asked me how far a marathon is I probably wouldn't have been able to give you a correct answer. When I went to the expo for the Chicago Marathon in 2009 I bought a 26.2 magnet that's hanging proudly on my cabinet at work. I've had a few people comment about it and say things like "did you run a marathon?" or "I've seen that around, doesn't that have something to do with a marathon?". But most don't have any idea. I'm not saying that to sound snobish or that I'm some kind of running elitist, but I get a kick out of the idea's they think it is. The most common response I get to it is "is that a bible verse?" Of course I politely tell them " no, but running 26.2 miles can be a religious experience".

Weight room

Here's a pic of the weight room that's located just across the parking lot from the building that I work in. It's owned by the same company and have the same key card access the cardio room and locker rooms have. Of the 3 years that our company has been located here I've used this room alone. Only 3 times has there ever been another person in this room with me at the same time as me. It's pretty much my own personal weight room. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <9522375381@vzwpix.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 5:27 PM
Subject:
To: jeffreybent2010@gmail.com


This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

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Locker room

This is a pic of the locker room at work. It's only a few years old and nice to have. All I have to do is walk down 2 flights of stairs and I'm here. I can either use the cardio workout room, the running/walking path outside, or the free weights weight room that are located in the building across the parking lot. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <9522375381@vzwpix.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 4:53 PM
Subject:
To: jeffreybent2010@gmail.com

Fwd:

Here's a pic of the workout room in the building that I work in. For cardio, it has 3 treadmills, 1 stair climber thing, 1 recumbent bike, 1 bike trainer, and 2 elipical. It also has a workout machine for some weight training. They also have 2 flat screens for the ladies who like to walk on the treadmills and watch their Soaps. It's not much, but better than nothing and more than most. It's pretty nice as the building is only about 4 years old. There is also a locker room with a couple of showers and about 9-10 lockers, I'll send a picture. 

Also, the business park that I work at has a 1 mile loop running/walking around a couple small ponds. It's kind of nice as it's marked off in 1/4 mile sections. I use it mostly for my speed work outs. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <9522375381@vzwpix.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 8:49 AM
Subject:
To: jeffreybent2010@gmail.com


This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

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sssssnnnnoooowwww!

Snow

I woke up at about 3am and looked out the window to a fresh blanket of snow...and its been snowing ever since. I like to lean into winter, not a all out snow-pocolips right off the bat. I guess I better start shoveling. Pics to follow...

Pics

Me and my oldest daughter (4 years old) the night before the Stillwater Triathlon

Here are pics of my family. The first is of my oldest daughter and me. This was taken as I was getting my bag ready for the last tri I did in 2010, the Square Lake Triathlon short course in Stillwater MN.  The next pic is my beautiful wife and youngest daughter at the Halloween Hodgepodge in Eagan MN. I'm a lucky man to have so many beautiful girls in my life.

My wife and our youngest daughter (6months old)

Fwd:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <9522375381@vzwpix.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 8:43 AM
Subject:
To: jeffreybent2010@gmail.com

Title of Blog

I guess the title of my blog is self explanatory, but I feel obligated to explain. Or I just wanted to start this by saying a little about myself. The IM in I'm is representive of Ironman. A goal I have is to complete an Ironman distance triathlon before I turn 40 (I'm 36 right now) and Tri-ing...well I enjoy triathlons. Also, in a general sense, I am trying. Trying to be the best father, husband, brother, son, step-son, son-in-law, person, triathlete, runner, break dancer, arborist, gardener, french chef, snipe hunter, etc, etc. Well you get the idea, I thought it was kind of clever.
Anyway, I went and saw "Ride Across the Sky" last night. It's a movie about the Leadville 100 Mtn Bike race. It was pretty awesome. I thought they spent the right amount of time focusing on the pro's and amateur's. Some of the amateur's stories as to why they wanted to accomplish such a feat were very inspiring. If you get a chance, I recommend seeing it.