painting, life, and the last 16 weeks

So when I haven't been training for Ironman Wisconsin, I've been painting, removing wallpaper, and painting some more. Anyway, here's a sample of my work.  On top of that, I have to 2 spirited little girls who keep me on my toes.

Before: old crappy furniture (but its still comfy)

After: new curtains

Sectional from downstairs

TV from downstairs

Patio curtains

On Saturday April 14th, I took my oldest daughter to the Daddy Daughter Dance. We had lots of fun. She got her nails done, face painted, punch and cookies, and of course dancing!

My oldest (5 1/2) and me before the Daddy Daughter Dance

Yesterday was my youngest daughter's 2nd birthday, so we had ice cream and cupcakes. Not exactly Ironman training fuel, but I have to say it was well worth it.

very serious about her piggy tails!

On the training end of things, I've completed 16 weeks of Ironman training and here's the totals from each of the last 4 months;

Weeks 1-4:
Swim: 7hrs 42min
Bike: 13hrs 50min
Run: 7:51
Total: 29hrs 23min

Weeks 5-8:
Swim: 8hrs 28min
Bike: 16hrs 51min
Run: 9hrs 55min
Total: 35hrs 14min

Weeks 9-12:
Swim: 9hrs 30min
Bike: 19hrs
Run: 12hrs 9min
Total: 40hrs 39min

Weeks 13-16:
Swim: 10hrs 43min
Bike: 19hrs 15min
Run: 9hrs 25min
Total: 39hrs 23 min

So far, so good, but now the "real" training begins as the last 20 weeks of training is where the rubber meets the road.

Later

What a difference a year makes

April 14, 2011

March 16, 2012

The weather here in MN has been crazy warm...just saying.

Later,

Jeff

7 of 36 weeks

I've been making small adjustments to my Ironman training schedule over the last 6 weeks and I feel like that I have pretty good system...so far.
I bought a magnetic dry erase calendar and after a few weeks of trial and error, I think I'll just write out my workouts one week at a time. The top line is my scheduled training times that I will try to acheive over the course of the week. My workouts are designated solely by time, for example, Tuesday 2/14 looked like this;

B: 1:05 min
R: 40min

It's pretty simple (just how I like it) really, but I think I need to keep as simple as possible otherwise I'll burn out mentally as well as physically. Now the line below the scheduled times are the "real" times that I trained. So below the scheduled training day of Tuesday 2/14 looks like this;

B: 1:05 min
R: 42 min

I'll try and stay as close to the scheduled time as possible and although my schedule doesn't note it, I do have specific workouts for each of the designated days. I keep those in my "trapper keeper". Some days have speedwork for the runs or drills for the swim and others have long easy rides on the bike. So I keep this handy and refer to it each morning (or the night before). I'm trying not to look to far ahead, but when I right out the scheduled times on the dry erase board, I make mental notes of the workouts; easy swims, TT on the bike, etc.)

Every Sunday, after my Sunday scheduled workout, I get my "trapper keeper" and flip to the next weeks workouts. I study it over and adjust the workouts to my "life" schedule. The tricky part are the days I it has a long swim and a long bike scheduled on the same day during the week. Unfortunately, my "life" schedule doesn't allow for that currently, so I have to split those up between 2 mornings.
I'm currently getting up at 4:30am (most days) and I either get to the YMCA by 5am for a swim or I'm riding the bike trainer in my basement. Then during my lunch hour, I can either run, stretch/core, ride the stationary bike, or just take it easy (which is a good thing once in a while).

During the last 7 weeks, I've done as little as 7 1/2 hours a week and up to 10 hours a week. So far it's been manageable, but when the training time reaches the mid to high teens, that will change.

As for the number of yards swimming, miles biking, and miles running, well, I document those on dailymile.com. If you don't have a website to document your workouts, check it out.

Later

8 years

I wrote a post last year about the death of my Mom, you can read it here. Another year has gone by and I still can't believe she's gone. It's been 8 years now and I don't know if I will ever have a grip on it. Grief can be a powerful thing. It can hold you down or it can motivate and empower you. Sometimes it does both, either way it's my way of trying to fill the void in my heart that will never be filled.

Anyway, I thought I would share a pic of my bike that has my own personal touch.

Later

Absentee Blogger

I'd apologize for not blogging lately, but it wouldn't be genuine. Not to say that I haven't been reading a few blogs here and there, but the truth is, I've been busy. After signing up for Ironman and making a few needed reservations, the last few months have been a sort of trial run. First off I joined the YMCA and have been swimming 3x / week and the other days I've been hitting the bike trainer. So the alarm has been going off at 4:30am every morning and I've dragged my butt out of bed (most days) and getting in a workout. My usual lunchtime workouts have remained the same and I usually run, weights/core, or ride the bike trainer for 30-40 minutes. I have 2 bags ready to go at a moments notice (see pics below) and I think I'm pretty well adjusted to getting up early, so now that the "real" training is here, It won't be such a shock. The rest of my free time has been spent painting, removing wallpaper, repairing walls, painting some more, and did I mention painting. All these "honey-do" list items have been done at night. Oh, and did I mention that I work full time, have 2 young daughters, and a smoking hot wife to please. Follow that up with a 5 year olds birthday party, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (we put on 1300 miles of driving!), to say my time has been limited would be an understatement. Like I said above, I've been busy.

Below are some pics of what I've done.

This week was my (semi) official start to Ironman Wisconsin training. I have a 16 week "build up" program and then an intense 20 week training plan. I've been putting together a race schedule for this summer as well and I think I have it nailed down. Complete with a Team Evotri brick weekend WIBA - Wisconsin Brick Adventure .

Here's the breakdown of this summers events;

May 12:  Oakdale "Spring Classic" Duathlon
June 22-24: WIBA
July 22: Chisago Lakes Half Iron
August 19: Lake Marion Tri - Olympic

September 9: Ironman Wisconsin!

The first 3 pics are of the "set-up" I have for training and to simply stay organized. The shelves were installed to hold everyone's shoes and our backpacks that my wife and I take to work each day. Above that is a spot for towels, bins for gels, cliff bars, etc, another bin for sunscreen, earplugs, swimcaps, etc, and another for water bottles. Then another shelf for bike cleaning stuff, extra shoes, helmets, etc.

Laundry Room: shoes, gym bags, water bottles, nutrition stuff, towels, etc.

The next pic is where we keep all of our workout, training, and race clothes. We empty our gym backpacks in the laundry basket above and after they are washed they go in the black storage cubes below. They gray duffle bag is my swim bag and has goggles, earplugs, fins, flip flops, padlock, ziplock bag to put in the recipe card w/ the swim workout I've written out, and usually an extra towel.

Laundry Room: workout cloths, hats, swim duffle bag, hydration stuff. 

Everything I need below for a good sweat fest. A stool for the remote, gu or banana, and water bottle, and a fan to keep cool. The bottom right of the pic shows one of the legs of the treadmill.

Here's where I spend every other morning.

Once I get into the thick of training, I'll hop off the bike, slide it over by the fan, and put the treadmill down for a run (at least until it gets nice enough to go outside).  Then I can just escape out the patio door behind the blinds.

painted wall #1. (The bike is just in front of the treadmill).

painted walls #2

Wall continuing up the stairway. This wall was wallpapered previously. Removing wallpaper sucks!

Wall #3. Moving across the living room (we haven't decided on curtains yet)

Wall #4, this was wallpapered too. 

Wall #5  bulkhead before  (more of the striped wallpaper)

after

Wall #6, Kitchen island

The rest of the kitchen

Now all I  have to do is put up the tile backsplash, paint the hallway, removing more wallpaper in the living room and paint it, and finish the bathroom...thats all.

Later

Hard Work

Anything worth doing right is worth all the hard work that it takes to do it...

I sure like being a father.

Ironman Florida and Halloween pic!

I stole some quotes below from Sonya Wieck's blog after reading her Ironman World Championship race thoughts . Some are quotes from her, some from her coach, and some from a few others. I'm sure the following quotes could apply to any Ironman distance race and they all struck a cord with me, so I thought I would share a few as Ironman Florida is this weekend. Enjoy!

"After all, the Ironman will ask you questions out there in the middle of the Queen K, and you better have the answers to them."


"The main thing to remember is that it’s a long day at Kona, and that the swim has to be fairly enjoyable and relaxing. The bike not so much. The run not at all."


"Push is supposed to come to shove."

"If being uncomfortable is inevitable and the only way out is forward…through the misery…then we must embrace it."

* The last quote wasn't on her blog, but I thought it was appropriate and it's one of my favorites.
"When going through hell...keep going."

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE RACING IRONMAN FLORIDA THIS WEEKEND!

I also had to share a pic of my 2 princess's from Halloween.

 Later

Things I will never own...

1. Boat - I don't fish. I would consider a pontoon however, but it's far down the list of wants.
2. Snowmobile - I tried it, didn't like it. Besides, it's cold out.
3. Motorcycle - No thanks. I did own a moped once though.

4. Sportscar - I haven't hit my mid-life crisis yet.
5. Hand gun  - Unless I time travel to the old west, I don't think it's necessary.

6. ATV - I have no where to ride one and no need to own one.

7. Golf cart - Mark Twain said "golf is a good walk wasted", but I like golf, so I may as well walk.

8. Plane - Cost alone is a no brainer, but I'm not a big flyer.

9. Fish house - Sitting on a frozen lake staring at a hole in the ice is not appealing. See #2 too.

10. Tractor - No plans on farming in the immediate future, but I will drive one if needed.

* I reserve the right to change my mind on any of the above items without reason or rational explanation as I'm sure there was a day in my life I said I would never wear running tights or bike shorts in public.

* I think I may have eliminated any sort of inheritance from my Father-in-law and/or Stepfather with the above list.

I am however the proud new owner of the bike pictured below. I bought it a few weeks ago and posted a pic on DailyMile. I stated on DailyMile that I have yet to name my bike, but would do so soon. Fellow blogger and all around awesome dude Bryan said that I'd get to know my bike very well over the next year due to the massive amount of training needed for Ironman. With that said, I thought I better name my bike based on two maing criteria;
1. Female - I couldn't see myself describing bike rides on my blog by saying "I took Steve out for a long hard ride today" or "I did intervals on James this morning and boy was it hard!".
2. Familiar - In the off chance a family member stumbles across this blog, I needed it to be a name others already  knew.
The name I chose met both criteria and honors a special woman in my life...my wife, Sarah. But in order to eliminate any confusion, I named her Sara (no "h").




Sara! She's fast and sexy!

 

Gettin' my Farm on!

For the last few years the family and I have gone back to East Dakota to the Grandparents house during harvest time. I've slowly been let into the process of harvest, first learning how to help dry the corn and put it into the bins. The next year, I helped by "chopping stalks" in some of the corn fields. This year, I was allowed to drive the grain cart. Now this is quite a step up and I must say I really felt like I was doing some real farming.

Moving my way up the tractor ladder

I followed the combine and when I got the "sign", I pulled up along side and the combine and it would empty its corn into the cart I was pulling. I would do this 2 times then I would empty my cart into the semi trailer.  When the semi was full, it would take the load back to the farm to be emptied (via the auger) into the holding bin, wait for its turn in the dryer, and then into the bins.

$200K and only driven 4 weeks a year...sweet.

That's it. Farming is easy as hell and the equipment is cool to drive.

Tomorrow we go back to the Twin Cities, much to the delight of my Father in Law I'm sure.

Later

Ironman - I WILL do this!

I always watch Ironman video's on Youtube and this one is one of my favorites. I run through every emotion while watching this 2 minute video. Only watching video's of my children and my wedding do I feel so much emotion. I'll need to contain this emotion over the next 50 weeks if I want to cross the finish line on 9/9/2012.

Later

Square Lake Long Course Race report...and big news?

I'm going to make it short...sort of. My apprehension about swimming 1.2 miles was well documented in the last few posts.  As it turns out, it wasn't as bad as I thought. The weather at the start of the race was warm, but not windy which was good from a swim stand point. This is a small race and there was only about  200 entries so it wasn't crowded, which was also good.
This was a 2 loop swim course and each loop of .6 mile was approximately 20 minutes, which is good for me and better than I had anticipated considering this was my fourth swim since February.

The transition was slow (but deliberate) and after going up the 68 steps from the beach to transition, I took of my wetsuit, dried off my feet, put on my socks, slipped into my bike shoes, and jumped onto my trusty steed. Without having ridden this distance (54miles) before, I took it slow and steady. I also realized it was getting hot and that if I wanted to finish in good shape, I better take it slow. I chugged up the hills, pushed little on the downhills, and tried to maintain a steady pace on the flats. Problem is that the course has false flats that tend to make a person work harder than I anticipated. I didn't let it bother me though, I was having a good time.

Drama showing her America pride!

Half way point, mile 27. Bottle exchange too.

I finished up the second loop about 5 minutes slower than the first, but I stopped at mile 40 to take a pee in the bushes. I passed 3 people and got passed by 2 people on the second loop, but I was feeling decent. I knew that it was getting really hot out and I felt that I was doing well nutritionally. I had two 20 oz bottles of Gatorade on the first loop along with 2 Gu's. The second loop bottle exchange had Heed and water. I took a bottle of each and had 2 more Gu's on the second loop and finished both bottles.
I pulled into T2, grabbed my shoes, grabbed my handheld water bottle and took off.

The run started OK and I tried to keep it slow. I ran the first 3 miles at about a 9-10min/mile pace and then I was really starting to feel the heat. I had passed a handful of runners, but soon realized that this wasn't sustainable.  At one of the aid stations they were talking about a few runners to needed medical attention due to the heat and one was even taken by ambulance. It was at this point I decided to take it easy and just focus on finishing. I did a run/walk combo and talked with runners that I caught up to or that caught up to me. I met several nice people, but one lady who I ran/walked with was like myself (married, 2 children, etc) and she is doing IMAZ in November and this was sort of a training run. It was at that point I had made up my mind about something that was on my mind for quite some time, but I'll  get to that in moment.
I finished up running (jogging) the last couple miles with my new friend (Dana). I wished her luck in November and let her hit the finish line alone (in case she wanted to get a finishers pic).  I saw my wife and youngest daughter shortly before the finish, so I picked up my daughter and headed for the finish line for the best finish pic ever!

You think I'll have a tan line all winter?

Now that the half iron was done, I had a decision to make. Ironman? IM Wisconsin was on the same day as this race and I knew that general entry opened the next day at 12pm. I had already planned on taking off half the day on 9/12, so the question lingered in my head all night.

So I soon realized that only hotel rooms fill up faster than Ironman general entry, so I booked 3 rooms by 9am that are near the finish. I then waited 3 more hours to sign up for the race and after filling out page after page of questions and securing my children's future in Community College, I got in!

On 9/9/12 I will line up with 2500+ other triathletes to find out if we have what it takes to endure 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running.  It's only 50 weeks away and I'm already nervous. Time to put up or shut up.

Later

Square Lake Half Iron...well 68.4 actually

I'm actually getting sort of nervous about this race, more to the point, the swim. I just didn't make the time needed to feel confident about the swim and that bothers me. I waited to long to try and make time to swim.

I'm not going to dwell on it, I'll just do the best I can and see what happens. Outside of that, I'm excited about the rest of the race and I'm anxious to see how I do biking 54 miles and then running a half marathon.
So if nerves weren't enough,  this morning I get up to do a little ride on the bike trainer and notice that my rear wheel is flat. Great! Now I should tell you that last weekend I replaced the front tire, got a new tube to bring to tomorrows race, and some bike cleaning supplies. I shined her up real nice and felt good about my tire changing skills. So when I had the flat this morning I thought, "a least I got a tube already" and since I just changed the front, this should be a piece of cake. So I got started and got it changed. I set it up back on the trainer and noticed a "thumping". I did an inspection and realized the tube was pinched on the bead of the tire. So I took it off (again) and now the tube had a small hole in it. So now I'm in a wonderful mood and look sort of like the pics below.

I theeeen tried to patch the tube and after doing so I put it back on the trainer. Shortly after, it went flat again. I said "fuck it" and dropped it off at bike shop and got a new tire and tube installed by professionals. Lets just hope I don't get a flat on the bike tomorrow, otherwise my day is done. 

I haven't been updating my blog lately and to be perfectly honest, it wasn't something I thought much about. I've logged my mileage and bike time (and the occasional swim) on Dailymile.com and have been communicating with people in that format instead of the blog. It's quicker and something I can do at work after my lunch hour. My free time in the evenings has been limited lately with our oldest starting preschool and on Monday our youngest will be changing daycare providers. Our other daycare lady retired last Friday, so we've had heavy hearts lately.

So if you want to see what I'm up to more often, check out Dailymile.com.

My next post may have some big news, but I'll just leave it at that.

Later

Ragnar Race Report

I have to admit that I wasn't terribly excited about participating in the Ragnar Relay, but now that it's over, I'm glad I did. It was truely unique experience. I also got to run the relay with my wife, so it was nice to spend some time without the kids, even if its with 4 other adults we hardly knew and we all stink.

I won't get to detailed, but I'll say that my wife and I were in Van #1 and she was runner #3 and I was runner #5. We quickly learned that this was going to be hilly and harder than either of us expected, but our fellow vanmates were great and kept the spirits high. Overall, the three legs went like this; Leg #1 - hot and hilly, Leg#2 - dark and hilly, Leg#3 - tired and hilly. Would I do it again? You bet!

Here's some pics from our 28 hours of running...

Winona MN

Leg #1

Happy to be done with the first run!

Leg#1

Getting a drink from Ernie and Bert. 

That's how I felt about Leg#1.

Lake Pepin at the first Van exchange.

A quick spin

During the first Ragnar Great River, this bar handed out free beers to the runners, but there was only 30 teams that year. 

My wife finishing Leg #3.

The beginning of my third leg. 

Leg #3 got more and more hilly and I was tired. 

Excited to be done!

Finish line...28 hours later.