First Tri of 2011!

This is the inaugural race for Big Lake and is a new addition to a series of races that include another triathlon that took place in July and a half marathon in September. The name Graniteman comes from the area in which all the races take place, central Minnesota. The largest town in this area is St. Cloud, MN (about 30 miles from Big Lake) and is home to large deposits of granite. Quarries have operated in this area since the 1880's and thusly the city of St. Cloud is nicknamed the "Granite City". 

Well its the first of 2 triathlons this year, but the next one is the Square Lake Long Course in September and that'll be a bit more challenging. So this race is one part training for Septembers race and one part fun...mostly fun I hope.

The location of the race seems like it should be favorable for a fast race, but of course a lot of other variables come into play...weather mostly. It could be windy, rainy, hotter than the surface of the sun, or all of the above. In any case, it should be a fun course. Here's my course description for each leg;

Swim: The swim course takes place at the local beach (Lakeside park beach) which is on the southwest corner of  Big Lake...not terribly original when it comes to naming lakes, beaches, and roads (I'll get to this later) in this area I'd have to say. I guess Wet Lake and Sandy Beach were taken. Anyway, It's a triangular course which will have us starting on the right side of the beach and angling out to the left and making one turn and coming back towards the left side of the beach.

The swim distance is .33 mile, 531 meters, or 580 yards, depends on which one you prefer. In any case, I'm just hoping to kick and flail my way through without incident.

Bike: After I entered the bike course route into Map My Ride, it appears that its very flat and should be fast. Other than that, I have nothing to go on until tonight when I drive the course. I'm actually feeling pretty good about the bike this year as I've already spent more time in the saddle than I did last year in prep for my Olympic tri. If conditions are decent, I think I can surpass my overall bike pace PR.

Run: The run course is a 5K and is also flat and fast and takes place on Lakeshore Ave (Again...not a very original name, but at least I won't forget where I'm at). I've done a few brick workouts and all have gone very well and the last two I've done have been sans socks.  I haven't done a tri since last September, but I feel my fitness level is in a good place and I plan on pushing as hard as I can at this point.

So there you have it, my Graniteman Big Lake Triathlon preview. Next post will be my race report.

Later

Finally...A Parade!

The end of June and beginning of July has been kind of a tough month for our household.  Here's a bullet point rundown;

• June 24 - The "procedure" kept me outta commission for about a week. 
• July 2nd - Oldest daughter gets sick while 90 miles from home and throws up.  To make it worse, she threw up all over me and I didn't have any spare clothes.  Yuck. * missed parade #1 *
• She gets a temp of 105 Sunday morning and goes to Urgent Care. 
• She doesn't lose the temp until Thursday July 7th and doesn't go back to daycare until the next day. 
• Friday July 8th, my youngest gets a temp and we repeat the same s**t for another 5 days. * missed parade #2 * 
• Both kids test negative for strep throat and we're told its viral and it has to run its course...great. 
•  During the 10 days of continuous illness, my wife and I work half days at work so one of can be home with the sick one. During this time, no runs or workouts for either of us. 
• As of July 22nd, the illness's have seemed to go away (although the youngest seems to be teething, so she's a little crabby). OH BUT WAIT! my wife and I get a call at work and the oldest had a temp. 
• She spikes a temp of 104 again on friday night and she throws up twice. We give her a cool bath, some medicine, and the wife and I are on Def Con 5 again all night.  
• Saturday July 23rd, the oldest takes a 6 hour nap and sweats out the fever. 2:30pm, she is fever free!
• Sunday July 24th, we go to a PARADE! 

Anyway, after a long few weeks of little sleep and no training, Half Iron training has resumed. A few weeks off hasn't been bad and in reality, it was probably needed. 

Next weekend I have my first tri of the year, a sprint in Big Lake, MN. 

It's a 1/3 mile swim, 15 mile bike, and a 5K Run. It should be fun and I'm going into it with zero expectations. This is the first year of this event, so there are no finish times or race reports to rely on to gauge the course. The race director posted the course maps just last week, so there may be a few hiccups with the overall event, but it should still fun.
My wife and I decided to make a weekend out of the whole thing. We took off work on Friday and will be staying at a hotel and then the race will be Saturday morning. Then we'll go back to the hotel, relax, and let the kids play in the pool. Since we haven't been able to camp since Memorial Day, this may be our "vacation" this summer. Oh well, at least the kids are feeling better and we get to have a fun weekend.

Later

Run like hell...literally.

Maybe I'm a wimp, maybe its age, or maybe it's just that damn hot, but I haven't been able to bring myself to run outside this week. In fact, the last "training" related activity that's been outdoor was a 15 mile bike ride last Saturday and I was sweating like a whore in church!

We did however have a fun family day at the lake last Sunday morning. The lake is spring fed so the water is almost always cool, which was much needed as the temp was in the high 90's, but felt like it was 100+! We ate lunch and jumped back in the water for another 30 minutes and then headed home to nap and get out of the oppressive heat.

So I've been trying to get into a "training" rhythm as my next couple of races quickly approaches. I've been consistently inconsistent lately with regards to swimming, biking, and running and it's got me feeling a little lost. I got into such a groove "training' for Grandma's Marathon that I knew weeks in advance what my training was going to be and when I was going to do it, but triathlons are different and require more planning. You'd think by now that I'd have this tri training down, but with two spirited children and a wife who's also "training" for the Ragnar Relay it get tough to fit it all in. I plan on sitting down and hammering out a tentative training schedule from now until my half iron on 9/11/11. I've said before that the rest of this years races are just for fun, but they still require a certain amount of training so you don't kill yourself. So it's a fine line between adequately training so you can still have fun and not training adequately and having a long painful day.

Anyway, I plan on getting some time on the bike trainer a few mornings during the week and mixed with a few bricks as the half iron gets closer. Then I'll do either a tempo run, speedwork, or weights/core workout during my lunch hour. Swimming gets a little trickier. I can swim at the local school on Satuday mornings from 8am-9am, but the rest of the week is hit and miss. I'll try and sneak to the same said school for lap swimming either Monday or Wednesday night from 8pm-9pm, but with kids that can be hard. I could also go to a local lake (we have 10,000 of them after all), but without a "swim buddy" that's not the smartest thing in the world.

Anyway, I'll get it all figured out eventually and if not, I'll have fun trying.

Later

Q...this is for you!

I watched Q on the move's last post and as a father of two girls myself I thought "It could be worse"...and here's how.

Funny and disturbing all at the same time.

Later

Virgin ride

I got in a 4.7 mile run this afternoon and it was the first time I ever pushed the jogging stroller. My 14 month old daughter did great and eventually fell asleep. I have to admit that I wouldn't like to push it for 10 miles, but this wasn't too bad.

It felt good to get out and run. The last 3 weeks have been a bit of a nightmare. A medical procedure, one sick kid for 5 days, and then the other kid sick for another 5 days. I think everyone is on the mend so hopefully life can get back to normal.

Later

Hello?

I'm back after a brief hiatus. Since Grandma's Marathon I haven't done much. Some by choice, some not. Here's a quick catch-up of what I've been doing (or not doing).

June 18th: Grandma's Marathon

June 19-23: I rode the bike trainer 3 times for a total of 90 minutes

June 24: the "procedure".

June 24-26: intimate sessions with multiple frozen bags of peas.

June 27- July 2: Still sore early in the week, but got better as the week went on.

July 2: Oldest daughter got sick and threw up all over me in the parking lot at Applebees, 2 hours from home.

July 2-4: Monitored a sick little girl; no parade, no BBQ, no fireworks = sad little girl.

July 5-7: Split the work days with the wife and got in zero workouts, but kids come first.

July 8: Oldest daughter feeling better and able to go to daycare! But the youngest now has a fever...here we go again. I did however work a full workday today as I wasn't able to split the workday with my wife so I was able to get in a lunchtime run; 3 miles in 24:16.

The Lifetime Fitness Triathlon (now called the Minneapolis Triathlon) is tomorrow and want to wish Jamie of  TriScientist good luck. It's his first "real" triathlon and I know he'll do great!

Really!? and Happy Birthday Canada!

As if being sore and tender wasn't bad enough, I'm constantly reminded of my procedure by all the items around the office. I cringe at the very sight of anything sharp.


Letter opener? In some part of the world this would be a precision surgical instrument.




This too!




I almost threw up when I saw this!



Jeez, I didn't even get a cake...Pete, you're a lucky man.

If all goes well, I'll try running in a few more days.

Oh, and happy Independence Day today to our neighbors to the north! In your honor, I will observe the KPH numbers on my speedometer when I drive today while listening to Nickelback, I'll bitch about the last time the Stanley Cup was raised in Canada (1993, really guys?), drink a Molson and maple syrup, reflect fondly on the Gold Medal the Canadian hockey team stole won against the USA, watch a Micheal J. Fox movie, and I'll say "eh" at the end of each sentence.

Later (eh!)