1st video post

Here is my first attempt at a video blog post. I took this video after I took the pics of the road at my in-laws. It was cold and windy. I used our Flip video camera so I wasn't sure if I was aiming it accurately or how the audio would turn out, especially with the wind. All in all, it didn't turn out too bad. 

7 Years

7 years ago today I quit using chewing tobacco. I started using chewing tobacco in high school when some of the Juniors and Seniors on our hockey team made it seem kind of cool and harmless. By the time I was done with high school I used chewing tobacco everyday. In my mind it was better than smoking because it didn't get the stinky smoke smell in everything and I could pretty much do it anywhere and no one would know (school, work, etc). To this day I rank quitting chewing tobacco very high on my list of personal accomplishments.
However, it did come at a price. 7 years ago today is the same day my Mom called and told me that she had cancer. She had a lump on her neck and chest and her biopsy confirmed it was cancerous.  Later it was determined that she had lung cancer. She smoked for approximately 30 years and wouldn't stand a chance against this monster. She wouldn't last long. The next 17 days would be some of the hardest and saddest days of my life.

Christmas in East Dakota!

So last time we were in western Minnesota was during Thanks giving and the next 3 pics below give you an idea of what the landscape is like. For people who don't farm or pheasant hunt, this is pretty desolate.

driveway

view south

view north

So here is the landscape today. Now this is desolate! The next 3 pics were taking in the same spot a mere 30 days later. They are in the same order as the above 3 pics.  Santa feels right at home out here this time of year.  You can see in the pic of the view south, the wind was blowing some of the snow from right to left (actually the wind was out of the Northwest). As the day goes on the snow slowly creates drifts over the road and can become quite treacherous.

driveway

view south

view north

Merry Christmas from East Dakota!

Training plan?

So I've been trying to get back into a regular running routine, but also wanting to maintain some of the weight training that I've been doing. Monday I hopped on the treadmill at work during my lunch hour and did a little interval training. However, before I got on the treadmill, I did 5 minutes of jump rope. It's a good way to warmup. I started at a moderate pace on the treadmill (8:30/mile) for the first 10 minutes and then ramped up the incline to 10 for 1 minute. I then leveled it off for 5 minutes and then up to 10 again at the 16 minute mark. I did one more 1 minute incline at the 23 minute mark and then cooled down for a few minutes. So in short I did 3 X 1 minute hill repeats separated by 5 minutes.
Today's workout went like this; 5 minutes of jump rope, Bench press (135lbs) 3 sets of 8 reps, Front and Lateral raises (5lb weight each arm) 3 sets of 10 reps, Squats (5lb weight each arm) 3 sets of 10 reps, Shrugs (45lb weight each arm) 3 sets of 10 reps, Curls (45lbs) 3 sets of 10 reps. I ended with 5 more minutes of jump rope. I tried to keep a 30 second rest between each set and no more that a minute between exercises. This lets me get in a lot of exercises in a short amount of time.

Tomorrow I think I'll do the same interval/hill repeat run on the treadmill. I hope to get in a few longish runs over the Christmas holiday, but we'll be in East Dakota and it'll look like the pic below, but with a lot more snow.

I'll need to get on the bike trainer too as I have an indoor tri coming up on 2/6/11. I will come up with a short little training plan for the indoor tri as its only 6 weeks from this Sunday. It'll probably go something like run, bike, run, bike, run Monday - Friday and swim on Saturdays. the last couple weeks leading up to the tri I'll do some bricks on the bike trainer and treadmill.  I'd like to keep up on some weight training during this time and may skip one of the above to mix in some weight training, but we'll see how it all goes. 

I got a big personal milestone anniversary coming up and will share it very soon.  Also, my youngest daughter will be 8 months old on Thursday, I can't believe it's been that long already. Hopefully she celebrates her 8 month birthday by sleeping through the night. 

Friday's 12lbs of X-Mas

So not only did we have the usually holiday goodies on Friday, but we had a baby shower for a co-worker. That of course adds to the surplus of food available for everyone to graze on all day.

chips (a staple of any treat day)

Ghiradelli chocolates 

crackers and an assortment of spreads

duh

Ceasar salad and an empty container of chicken wings

huge tote of popcorn

6 large pizza's

Oh yeah, I mentioned that I was going to discuss training. I did get to the pool on Saturday morning and it was as expected...wet. I did some drills, 200 warmup, 8X25 of freestyle, and 200 cool down.  Not much, but still taking it a bit easy on the left hamstring which is feeling pretty good. I also got out for a 2 mile run outside on Friday. It was COLD. I only had shorts and a couple of top layers and later found that it was in the single digits. Time to bust out the tights!

2010 Ford Ironman World Championship on NBC

I wonder how many people may stumble upon tomorrows broadcast of the the Ironman World Championship and be truly inspired to take on something larger than themselves? 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. 140.6 total miles. I don't think people outside the world of triathlons really can appreciate the magnitude of what it takes to attempt, much less finish, an Ironman. I hope to find out one day, for now I will have to be inspired by the professional and amateur triathletes alike.

Holiday Luncheon

So today is our holiday luncheon for work. They shut down the office from 11:30am - 2pm and we trek over to a fine dinning establishment called Tinucci's. This is the same place that Randy Moss disrespected a few months ago by saying that he wouldn't let his dog eat their food. From everything I've heard, it's actually a wonderful place to eat and Randy Moss and his dog have taken their act to Tennessee (Good Riddance!).

 As for the 12lbs of X-mas...well they took today off. However, the last couple of days looked like the following pics. The 2 pics below were taken at about 10:30am and you'll notice the empty pan. That can contained a taco dip and was apparently very popular. I was told it was put out at about 9am so it only took about 90 minutes to clean it out.  I never even got a taste, Oh well, I guess it was not meant to be. I'm going to have to start posting about some of my workouts, runs, swims, bikes, or something else, otherwise anyone who stumbles onto this blog will think all I do is eat crap all day.

 Last but not least, Here is a pic of my 2 little girls. We used this pic in our Christmas card this year. I am very blessed.

12 Pounds of Christmas update

So even 20 inches of snow can't stop the 12 pounds of X-mas. Here's a couple of pics from today. On friday there was a box of chocolate covered pretzels, a bag of popcorn, a box of donuts, and "puppy chow" (chocolate covered chex cereal dusted w/powdered sugar). Sorry no pics from Friday or Monday (I didn't work on Monday as our daycare provider had the day off).

What you don't see are the 2 spice cakes that were eaten before lunch.

This was full of meatballs and gone by 12:30pm.

I've been pretty good about not over indulging in the treats (I did have a piece of spice cake today) but was able to hold off the rest. It seems the harder a person tries to not have a treat, they end up going crazy and pigging out. That's why I don't beat myself up to much if I have treat once in awhile. 

I started running again today. My last run was on 10/29 so I took it easy today, 3 miles in about 30 minutes. More on the training later, I got some goodies to get ready!

Humility

 

So here's a little lesson in humility and possibly a little motivation this off-season. The pic on the top is from July 2006. My wife and I had gone to Colorado for a family reunion. We stayed in Winter Park, but one afternoon we went to Hot Sulphur Springs to relax in the well...hot sulphur springs. I did a lot of relaxing those days. The pic on the bottom is from July 2010 immediately following the LifeTime Fitness Olympic distance triathlon (about 150lbs). I don't know how much I weighed in July of 2006, but in October of 2005 I weighed about 170lbs for our wedding and I'm certain my weight didn't go down from there. I actually used to kid about "letting myself go" after I got married. Little did I know I actually was! I've since learned to watch what I eat more (although a work in progress) and workout about 5 days a week. We got close to 20 inches of new snow from Friday night and all day Saturday and it was cold as hell on Sunday. No Vikings game to help deal with the cabin fever either as the Metrodome collapsed from all the snow.  It's going to be a long winter.

July 2006

July 2010

Square Lake Showdown

So I found out recently that a person a know (albeit not very well) is going to be taking on the Square Lake Long course on 9-11-11. So I thought I would put together a list of reasons I may or may not beat this person (Mike).  For no other reason than to antagonize him.


5 REASONS I WILL BEAT MIKE AT SQUARE LAKE

1. I think I'm a better runner. I'm not trying to brag, but although I don't know him very well, he would likely concede this point. And the longer the race, the better my chances are.

I'd look like this with hair.

2. Less hair. You see, I'm follicly challenged (see pic below) and Mike has a thick head of hair. My lack of hair make me more aerodynamic and thus makes me faster (at least in my mind).

3. The course. Now bear in mind that Minnesota is not the hilliest spot on the earth, but compared to where Mike will be living, I'd say advantage me. This picture is probably similar to the training terrain Mike will have while preparing for Square Lake.

Dakota training views

4. Sleep. By that I mean that I'll get to sleep in the comfort of my own bed the night before the race.

Me dreaming of what it will be like to beat Mike.

5. Fatherhood. I've spent the last 4+ years being sleep deprived and have adjusted accordingly. As you can see in the photo above, I take advantage of any moment to sleep.


5 REASONS I WILL NOT BEAT MIKE AT SQUARE LAKE

1. He's taller, so if the event it came down to a close finish, he would be able to lean or outstretch me. Lets hope it doesn't come to that.

2. Faster bike. As you can see, Mike has a distinct advantage in this department and a sweet full body tri-suit.

3. Mike's a far better swimmer than I am. He swims with dolphins or Michael Phelps or something like that.  So hopefully he won't build to big a lead coming out of the water.

4. Mike is a Tri-Club member (Ooooh...la ti da!). He goes on 60 mile bike rides with his buddies and I bet they all have matching bike jersey's. My sarcasm is a defense mechanism for my own insecurities, sorry.

5. Finally. The last reason Mike would beat me at the Square Lake Long Course on 9-11-11,  he builds such a long lead from out swimming and out biking me that I can not recover. Or I've wasted so much time blogging about all this that I forget to train.

* I may consider letting the air out of tires or stealing his shoe laces, but until then I'll have to train that much harder.

12 Pounds of X-Mas

So every year at work they do this thing called "The 12 pounds of Christmas". Basically they lay out a sign-up sheet starting with the 12th day before Christmas (business days) and people write down what kind of treat, snack, goodie, or desert they will bring to share with our department. So yesterdaywas day #12 and on the menu was bacon wrapped little smokies with brown sugar! These are Damn good, but terrible for you. I did a little research and estimated that one of these little devils is about 200 calories. Sorry to report, but I had 3. If I don't die of a heart attack, I'll report what the next few days offer for the "12 pounds of Christmas". Oh, on another note, someone I know will be joining me at the Square Lake half iron. I'll be putting together a list of reasons why I may or may not beat him.

Cardio Room

I was going through some old posts that I didn't publish and noticed that I never posted a pic of the cardio workout room. As you can see, there are 3 treadmills, 2 eliptical, 1 stair climber thingy, 1 recumbent, and 1 bike trainer. Also, there is one cable weight machine in the back right corner.
After next week, I'll be spending between 35-40 minutes a day in this little room.
It's always a little awkward when I spend time in this room over the lunch hour. Unlike the weight room in the other building, this room actually see's more people than just me. As for the awkwardness, let me explain. I usually run on the treadmill in the back left corner of this picture. The reason for that is because one co-worker is on the stair climber machine and another co-worker is on the treadmill just the left of her and they are both female. That by itself is not so awkward, it's that they like to watch a daily soap opera that has some racey love scenes too.

For the record, this is not me, but just an example of why I feel like the creepy old guy.

 Maybe it's just me,  but I feel like the creepy guy in the office when I see those 2 women.  Just for the record, my wife works for the same company and sits just down the hall from me. As for those women, one of them must have mentioned a particularly naughty scene to another worker and they had a good laugh at my expense. My uncomfortableness must have really been apparent. Anyway, I think after next week, I'll just bring 13 layers of clothes and run outside.

Hill work?

So we go more snow yesterday afternoon and evening. I really don't know how much, but considering the snow pile in the middle of the cul-de-sac went from about 4-5 feet high to about 12-13 feet, I'd say is was a lot. Now this pile will continue to grow throughout the winter and I'm thinking of doing my running hill work on it.  But considering it becomes the local sledding hill with the neighborhood kids, I'd have to risk being run over by large plastic sleds loaded with 40-60 lbs of screaming 4-10 year olds.  My 4 year old and I went to another (larger) hill down the street this morning and got about 30 minutes of good sled time in until we got "white washed" during a particularly speedy run. It was fun and I'm looking forward to more hill work sledding with her this winter. 

Tri U Mah

First Tri of 2011!

I almost forgot to mention my first Tri of 2011, The University of MN indoor triathlon. It's a 30/30/30 set up. 30 minute swim, 30 minute bike, 30 minute treadmill run, and 10 minute transitions between each. It's 2/6/2011 and after next week, It'll only be 8 weeks away.  I did this in 2009 with a buddy of mine (who got me into tri's in the first place) and it was a lot of fun. The pool is HUGE! The lanes they have set up are 25 yards long and this is the width of the pool. This pool is used for Big 10 Division 1 swim meets and is a top notch facility. I'll have to think about what kind goals I want to set or just keep it "loosey goosey". 
Here's my age group results from 2009 and what I have to improve on (especially the swim).

Ages 30‐39 

1210 Sander Steve 1.242                10.700            4.590             16.532                  

1502 Guenter James 1.379                10.430            4.230             16.039                  

0908 Trelstad Steve 1.182                10.670            3.850             15.702                  

1307 Olson Aaron 1.242                10.260            3.670             15.172                  

0706 Philstrom Thomas 1.167                8.880               4.170             14.217                  

0507 Kent Chris 0.924                9.230               3.790             13.944                  

0606 Hernandez Jose 0.803                8.830               3.760             13.393                  

1208 Morel Matt 1.000                8.810               3.480             13.290                  

1503 Kurtz Craig 1.167                8.620               3.450             13.237                  

1005 DiLuzio Damian 0.818                8.190               3.550             12.558                  

0508 Olson Bill 0.818                8.180               3.310             12.308                  

1305 Hoffman Mark 1.061                8.310               2.790             12.161                  

1202 Bent Jeff 0.621                7.930               3.460             12.011                  

1206 MacEwan Daniel 1.000                7.440               2.790             11.230                  

1203 Kadelbach Ryan 0.636                7.090               3.430             11.156                  

1004 Brown Karl 0.561                7.470               3.040             11.071                  

0703 Kagol Phillip 0.742                7.090               2.840             10.672                  

1703 Furness Ian ‐                    ‐                   ‐                 ‐                        

1806 Kim Don ‐                    ‐                   ‐                 ‐                        

Bake Sale



Chocolate covered bacon!

 So in order to raise money at work for the Employee Recreation Committee (ERC), we had a bake sale today. I did my part and offered up something I've never made or actually ever eaten, chocolate covered bacon. Sounds good, right!? It wasn't too bad. The salty sweet taste kind of reminds me of a chocolate covered peanut, but then the meaty taste kind of kicks in and it's it own unique flavor. I mention this only because the next few weeks are my weakest when it comes to sweets. It is everywhere! Home, work...well that's about it because I really don't go anywhere else. Anyway, I thought they were good and if nothing else, it was the most interesting item. I will need to summon all my willpower to get through Christmas without packing on the pounds.  As for training,  I plan on holding off one more week with my no running campaigne. That will make it 6 weeks. I don't think the "hammy" is much better, but it was worth a shot and it allowed me to learn some new weight training exercises. Once I start running again, I'll post some pics of the path I run on at work.